


Inhuman

by Serpent_Tailed_Angel



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Adventure, Assorted Fairy Tail Memebers, Gen, Possession, Ship Teasing, Siren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-12
Updated: 2014-12-12
Packaged: 2018-03-01 04:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 49
Words: 104,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2759402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serpent_Tailed_Angel/pseuds/Serpent_Tailed_Angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A demon that predates Zeref is released, sparking a coup d'etat where humanoids and those with inborn magic abilities wish to see normal humans removed from power. Now Fairy Tail must try to stop them while their newest members are being personally hunted by the demon, and while a grudge bearing, self aware thought projection is willing to use them to get his revenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Natsu's guild gets new members

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Other fic I'm bringing over. For now, at least. This one was also written before the GMG ended. It assumes Lector is dead and that Sting and Rogue left their guild over his loss. (I think I was on chapter 8 or so when it was confirmed that he lived? I started writing this one before Cue The Storm.)

The only thing more beautiful than Mirajane herself was her voice. At least, that's what Lucy said. I don't get that. A person's appearance and voice are nothing alike. How could you even compare them that way? Besides, what mattered was that Mira was nice and could kick the ass of anyone who thought she wasn't pretty. Lucy just liked to say weird stuff. It must be a writer thing.

I don't usually remember when Lucy says weird stuff. I guess I must have thought of it because Mira was singing the night Sting and Rogue joined. Sting was looking up at her with that weird look Gray gives girls sometimes, like he wants to tell them they're pretty but he doesn't want to have to take them out on a date afterward. Rogue was playing a card game with his cat. Frosch was winning too. I hope Rogue let her.

Hm… maybe this isn't when everything started, but if I think about it I'm sure it was when we were celebrating the new guild members. Not all the chaos with demons running loose snatching up bodies and the spell that thought for itself. That didn't start for a few weeks, but it really feels like something Sting did that night was the start of the whole event. Okay, maybe I know what he did. I'm not into this story telling junk like Lucy is, but when I asked her she said you need to start off sounding cryptic and stuff.

Mirajane finished her song, her eighth song, and turned down her millionth encore.

"Sorry," she told everyone. "I'm really sorry. My throat's beginning to get sore. I couldn't manage another song tonight. Maybe someone else would like to sing?"

I wish she hadn't asked that. Gajeel was on the stage before she finished talking. He didn't even wait for her to say 'sing' before grabbing the microphone from her hands.

"This is a song I wrote. I think the new members might like to hear it." The got Rogue's attention. Frosch started laying out the cards in what I'm pretty sure is supposed to be the pattern for solitaire while her partner watched, full attention on Gajeel as he sang "Shoby doo bop" and other… ugh. I never really got why people praised Mira's singing so much. I never listened to singing. It's boring. But watching Rogue devote his focus completely to Gajeel I felt like I needed to listen too.

Even Lucy can probably sing better than Gajeel does. I'd bet my food money for a month that she can write better songs too.

I think Gajeel's song is called _Best Friend_ , though I can't tell why. The words don't make any sense. They make even less sense when you try to match them to the title. I still hoped it would maybe make Rogue and Sting act less like jerks if they heard something about friends.

After Gajeel finished his song he wanted to go again, but everyone but Rogue objected. I objected the loudest, and since everyone was really loud letting him know not to keep singing that meant I did the best job of telling him to stop.

Mira still wouldn't sing, so she started picking random members from the crowd to come up and perform. Lucy went up with Levy. The both sounded better than Gajeel.

I think Rogue went back to playing cards after that. I didn't pay much attention to him. Gray and I were too busy arguing over whether or not you're supposed to eat fries with ketchup or vinegar (I _know_ one is more common everywhere outside of Fiore but we all know which tastes better) when Sting and Rogue started arguing too.

Whatever Rogue said first I didn't catch it, though I think it was something about how Sting was actually listening to everyone's songs. Rogue hadn't spoken all evening, and his voice in our guild hall still sounded strange. I noticed right away.

"Well, some of them sound good," Sting responded. "That blonde girl earlier wasn't half bad. Erza might have been decent too, if she'd actually managed to sing."

Oh. I guess Erza got stage fright again.

"I liked Gajeel's song."

Sting laughed. "Only because you've never listened to anything else. I bet if anyone who _could_ sing had sung that you'd have hated it."

"Gajeel could sing, and it was a nice song," Rogue argued. I wasn't the only one who noticed him speaking. Half the guild had gone quite, or at least lowered their volume, to try and get a better idea of what their new guild mate was like.

"Gajeel _can't_ sing."

"Well why don't you go up and do better?" Gajeel demanded.

Sting was the one being challenged, but Rogue was the one to look away. I guess he didn't realize his man crush was listening in.

"Because I don't need to prove it. No one could sound worse that you."

The guild disagreed. Loudly. I wasn't the loudest that time but it would be funny if Sting couldn't sing either.

There was no avoiding it. Not when Mira was dragging him onto the stage. Sting looked out at the crowd with the same horrified look Erza had on her face when she'd been on stage, but when he drew in his breath he didn't pass out.

He started to sing.

"I have long-one final dance"

I blinked, trying to make sense of the nonsense string of words, and realized the song was over. I'd only caught the very start and end, and the rest was a blur of sounds that made me lose myself in his voice and want to follow that spikey haired idiot to the ends of the earth.

And _that_ is how the incident started. With Sting and his dumb brainwashing singing trick. Or… the stuff that came with the singing trick… or the stuff that the singing trick came with. Lucy's better with words.

The mess began because of Sting's weirdness, and that song that was so enchanting I couldn't even remember if his singing voice was good or not was the first sign that there was something up with him.


	2. Sting needs water to survive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually drop a fic when I get to the point where it goes "and this character isn't really human." So I'm very selfconcious of that aspect of this story.

I'm not sure at what point exactly I started needing water to survive, though I'm certain that statement sounded moronic. I don't just have to drink it. I need to breathe it. Surround myself in the sea or else I just can't breathe. That's not something I've ever told Rogue about. Suffocating if I spend too long on dry land is an awful weakness to risk becoming common knowledge, not to mention the other problems that come with people knowing my heritage, and the more people I told the closer the knowledge was to common.  
  
While we were in Sabertooth we were close enough to the ocean that I could make an excuse to go to the beach about once a week and get in my mandatory swim. Salt water would sate my need for closer to two weeks, but it was nice to have a few days leeway in case something happened. I'd also go down just before a job. No sense in only giving myself a few days to work before I had to run home.  
  
I'd swam just before the tournament too, but I hadn't had time in all the hassle changing guilds afterwards. After we finally got all of our things moved to the new apartment I was planning to take a train to the beach the night before-a sign of how desperate I was-but Rogue insisted I go to the welcome party Fairy Tail was throwing. Now my breathing was shallow. Inhaling hurt. Singing had been hell. I couldn't put off the swim any longer.  
  
Fortunately for me Magnolia was beside a lake. I've had to settle for that a few times before. It varied from lake to lake, but fresh water had never given me more than three days to work with. I wouldn't be taking long jobs for a while.  
  
Rogue was still having me stick with him until we knew our way around town, so I'd snuck out early in the morning to go swim. The closest point from town to the lake was by the girls dormitory. I didn't want anyone spotting me there and getting the wrong idea. I especially didn't want them seeing my clothes and getting a horrible idea. I tucked my clothing under some bushes by the lakeside and crept into the water.  
  
Even on my skin the cool liquid felt like sweet relief. My lungs ached thinking of how good it would feel in my gills.  
  
I don't know when I started needing water to survive, but I know I was only a few years old when Weisslogia noticed something off about me. It was another year before we realized what. I wouldn't say I'm inhuman, because at least two of my grandparents were human, but since I'm half siren at least two grandparents weren't human.  
  
The shift isn't swift, but it's painless. I've changed forms enough times in my life that I don't even feel it as my legs merge into a tail, fins stretch out of my arms and back, and webbing grows beneath my fingers. What I do feel is the scales creeping up my neck, the awkwardness of staying upright, and the sudden difficulty breathing air.  
  
I dove under the surface, enjoying the feel of the water moving around me. Comparing a lake to the ocean is like comparing swamp water to wine. There's really just no comparing them, but if you wander for long enough in a desert even swamp water looks like nectar. I don't want to say I don't like my life on land, but it would probably have been easier for me to have moved out to sea when I first found myself on my own.  
  
I was practicing barrel rolls when I heard the first giggle.  
  
When it was joined by a second I ducked behind an outcrop of rocks and peeked out. Rogue hadn't shut up about how friendly a place Fairy Tail was supposed to… well, he'd talked about it more than he usually does things. Nonstop jabber or just being talkative, I didn't care how great the thought the people in the guild were. If I didn't even want Rogue knowing I was half fish I sure as hell didn't want a bunch of girls I only formally met a day ago knowing.  
  
Maybe I could pass it off as a takeover spell… but I didn't know takeover magic, and I knew at least three members of the guild did. If they expected me to demonstrate more forms or even just shift between human and siren they'd see right through that story. I might be able to tell them it was a onetime thing. A curse I subject myself to on a dare or-ohholycraptheywerecompletelynaked! They were going skinny dipping? At six in the morning? Where they mad?  
  
One of the girls, Levy, I think, drifted closer to me. I backed up, mind running full throttle trying to think of a way out of this one. I really had no idea they were coming out. I could excuse it that way. If I wasn't looking when I was caught… but I was still in siren form. They were closer to my clothes than me. If I changed back I'd be naked too and then no matter what I said…  
  
I caught myself humming and forced down the noise. I'd managed to enchant the guild last night, however accidentally, but that wouldn't work here. I still had a while before I'd gotten enough water to breathe easy again. I wasn't sure I could sing for that long, and the second I slipped on a line the spell would be broken and then I'd have every single one of them, naked, having followed me however far out or deep into the lake I went, with no clear memory of how they got there. Not a good idea.  
  
I dove underwater again, finding a section of the lake close enough to make sure they didn't get near where I'd hidden my clothes, but deep enough that not enough light would reach me for them to be able to notice I was there. I could see them though. Really see them. Forget getting caught in siren form. If anyone ever found out I saw the entire population of the girls' dormitory wet and naked I was a dead man. I'd never tried to get on Minerva's bad side. I was sticking to that plan with Erza too.  
  
Just as I was getting settled in there I heard someone ask Juvia how deep under water she could go. No doubt she could at least reach my level. I had a strict policy about not swimming down too far in the ocean, but in the lake it was probably safe. I doubted there would be many strange ancient predators who'd take badly to me using light magic just outside of Magnolia.  
  
The lake was deeper than it looked, but not so deep that water pressure was unbearable. I took me a few seconds to reach the bottom. Without light I crashed face first into mud and clay, and took a moment to shake myself out of my stupor. I didn't want to be branded as a pervert on my second day at Fairy Tail, but that was no reason to make an idiot of myself.  
  
Holding my hand out, I channeled as much light magic into it as I dared and began exploring the lake floor. I'd probably never go this deep again-I'd never get into the water just beside the dorm again either-but it didn't hurt to check the lake out a bit.  
  
When I maintained that Rogue only liked Gajeel's singing because he was a fanboy, he told me I still shouldn't have done that because we needed to be trying to get along with our new guild mates. I knew the really skinny one was into art, and you could make sculptures out of clay. Whether or not the clay on the bottom of the lake was the right type or even if he did sculpt wasn't something I knew or even cared about. It was the thought that counted in the end, and as long as I looked thoughtful it would be alright. I scooped up an armful of what looked like it might be good clay as I went along the lake floor.  
  
I was trying to mold the clay into an easier to carry shape when I bumped face first into something for the second time that day. Don't laugh. When you have a fish tail and human arms with useless little fins sticking out it's much easier to just keep swimming than it is to stay still.  
  
I backed up and brightened my light to see what I'd hit. Something smooth and leathery and… crap. What was that? A mosasaur? A fricken Cedeus? I extinguished the light completely and prayed that whatever it was I hadn't woken it up. I've never had to adapt my fighting style to my siren form. The largest thing I'd ever run into in the ocean was a large squid, and even if that thing had been interested in me it hadn't been any larger than I was. I didn't want to try and fend off this thing.  
  
I didn't stay in the water long after that, hurrying up to the surface on the far end of the lake. When I surfaced I could still hear laughter drifting over the lake, so there was still no going back for my clothes. I wasn't going back down there, and I couldn't leave yet, so for lack of anything better to do I got to work with the dull task of washing mud out of the clay.  
  
Just look like you're trying to make peace with these nuts.  
  
I'd only been at it a minute when a sparkle caught my eye. Buried in the clay was a piece of metal. As I worked it out I uncovered a whole amulet. It was too filthy to really make out, but I didn't think it would make any difference if it wasn't. The piece of trash was so old and worn that there was just no telling what color the metal it was made of had originally been. I tried to rub some of the clay off and found a rune etched into it. Digging the clay out of that would take more than just my nails-which were going to require some digging clay out of too for that matter.  
  
By the time I'd uncovered all of the runes I could still hear the girls on the other side of the lake. A few of the runes resembled Fioren characters, so I imagined that it was an older version of the alphabet. I didn't recognize the other characters, but if I remembered properly Gajeel's not-a-girlfriend and Laxus' not-a-boyfriend both worked with runes. Once she put her clothes back on I could ask her what the symbols said.  
  
Next I worked on whatever had been embedded in the center. It was too dark to be a ruby, but too light to be a garnet. It looked like it had once been a thirteen pointed star, but only eleven points had stood the test of time.  
  
It wasn't my kind of thing, but it was still an interesting trinket. I had a small collection of odd trinkets I found on the ocean floor. Not sea shells, that's too common. Old fish bones and tourist trinkets that had fallen from cruise ships. This could be the start of my lake collection.


	3. Gray screws up on a mission

"Flame Brain."

"Pervert."

"Fire Breath."

"Droopy Eyes."

"Pointy Eyes."

"You lost your shirt again, idiot."

I stopped arguing with Natsu and looked down. He was right. "Crap! When did-"

"On the train this morning," Lucy told me.

Why does no one ever tell me before my clothes are beyond recovery? If Erza had been there she wouldn't have let me go around in nothing but pants and boxers for three… wait, in nothing but pants for three hours without saying a word. How had I lost my boxers without removing my pants? Had I taken them both off and only put the pants back on? Maybe it was a good thing Erza had decided to stay in Magnolia for some sort of bonding activity with the other girls in the dorm. If she saw me completely naked…

That… would have been painful.

"I wish I could lose a layer or two," Lucy mused. As far as I could tell she was going commando too, so it wouldn't be too bad if she lost a layer. M-maybe. "Gray, can you make some ice to help cool me down?"

"So Juvia can find out I saw you in a wet t-shirt?" And she _would_ find out.

"A-ah. Good point." Lucy was only silenced for a minute. "Happy, can you not tell Juvia if Gray sees anything?"

"I don't know," Happy snickered.

"Eh? Why does it matter if Lucy gets wet anyway?" Natsu asked. "Lucy, if you're hot, let me heat you up more. That way when I stop it will feel cool in here."

"You'd heat up the ruins too, stupid."

"What?"

"No more arguing!" Lucy snapped. "Just… ugh. It's already too stuffy in here to have to listen to you two go at it today. Save it for when we get back to the guild. You can give Sting and Rogue a demonstration of the madness they signed up for."

"I wanted to see what the first job they picked was," Natsu recalled.

"I wanted to go down to the lake with everyone else," Lucy sighed.

"I wanted to go with Carla to see the new movie that came out."

"I wanted to see what sort of work Rogue and Sting did too… so why are we here?"

Everyone stared at me, realizing for the first time that none of us knew who had wanted to do a job that took us deep into some old humid ruins in the middle of July on a day when we all wanted to stay in town. I racked my brain trying to recall what the job even was. Retrieve an stone carving or something, I thought. That was it. Gramps had called Natsu over that morning saying someone requested that he specifically retrieve a stone carving from the ruins. There was supposed to be a seal that only fire could open.

And Lucy, Happy and I went along because…?

"Who requested we do this job anyway?" I asked when we started walking ahead again.

From the outside the old temple had looked about the size of the old guild hall, but that was the tip of the iceberg. We'd been wandering around the maze of tunnels-which I suspected went under all four of the nearby towns and then some-for hours.

Lucy and her compass spirit looked up from the map they were working on. "The master didn't say."

"But there was a client? A known one?"

She shrugged. "I think so. For what they were paying it doesn't matter."

1,000,000 Jewels just for an old amulet that supposedly any fire mage could get. Gramps had claimed they must have wanted to support our guild after seeing our performance in the tournament. We'd had a steady flow of jobs since then but this was unquestionably our best paying to date. Not to mention that Erza being gone meant we only had to split the pay three ways. Because Happy did take up some food money we'd settled on a 3:3:4 ratio, grouping Natsu and Happy together. Lucy had spent the train ride in cheering about how she wouldn't have to worry about her rent for months.

If Gramps had okayed the job then it was probably fine. It was still odd that we were all doing it right away, but we _were_ each getting at least 300,000 for finishing it. That's usually what a good job pays _before_ we have to split the money.

"Just how large are these ruins anyway?" Natsu asked. "We've been here for days and we haven't passed through the same corridor twice. Even though they all look the same." He slammed his fist into an old, cracked statue of a man with fire for hair. It turned to dust.

"Natsu! This must have all sorts of historic value! Don't go ruining it!" Lucy scolded. No commenting on his 'days' claim.

"Eh? But they're ruins. They're already ruined." To prove it he lightly tapped another statue. This one's head slid down with a 'click' straight out of a B-list movie. An arrow shot from the wall and missed Natsu's head by an inch.

"Keep it up," I told him.

Natsu didn't even notice. Laughing, he ran forward, punching each statue and waiting to see if a trap would spring. When the fourth arrow managed to hit his arm it stopped being fun, and he fell back with us.

"That was stupid," Lucy let him know.

"How old is this place?" Natsu asked while he dug the arrow out. That should have cause all sorts of damage. Natsu was really something else.

"The locals didn't know." I informed him. When I'd asked while getting directions they'd talked about the ruins like they'd been abandoned there longer than Fiore had been a country. "Oh… so those traps…"

"It's kind of weird that they still work," Natsu mused, tapping another statue without thinking about it. This time rather than an arrow, a pile of dirt fell on top of him.

"That must have been something else when they set it up," Lucy decided.

"It smells like it could be fertilizer," I noted.

Neither of us said anything more on the subject while Natsu dug himself out of what was most likely ancient human waste.

"I don't like these statues anymore," He declared as he freed his feet. Bits of damp 'fertilizer' clung to his hair, skin, clothes, everything. The scent would probably last even longer.

"Then if you need to touch something put your hand somewhere else," I advised. To demonstrate, I leaned against the wall. The brick my hand rested in sank in, making yet another click. For a second no one said anything, then the floor opened up beneath Natsu and I.

-o-

"Owwwww. Good going Snow Ball."

"You're the one who kept deliberately getting arrows shot at himself, Charcoal Brain."

I'd landed on my back-fortunately in the soft 'dirt' that Natsu had released only moments earlier. Natsu had skidded out of the shoot we'd fallen through and ended up upside-down across the room.

He rolled over, pausing awkwardly as he pushed himself up, and looked around. "Can we climb back up?"

I got to my feet and peered up the shoot. "No, but it looks like Happy could help. Hey! Happy!" After a few seconds my voice echoed back, but that was all the response I got. "Shit. How far did we fall?"

Natsu limped up next to me and shouted "HAPPY!" so loud he left my ears ringing. I missed what he told me next, but judging by the way he gestured to his leg I guessed he was telling me he'd injured it.

Going up the way we'd come down wasn't an option, so we started exploring the lower level of the ruins. At first I tried to keep a decent pace and let Natsu struggle to keep up, but when he fell too far behind I had to slow down. Within an hour of our fall I was carrying him.

Neither of us wanted to address the whole close contact issue, so for once Natsu was silent as we searched for a way back up to Lucy and Happy. We looped in an out of rooms, with Natsu steering me by scent if we came across a trail we'd already tried. Finally we found a room that was actually noteworthy, because it was designed to trap people inside of it. Natsu and I stared stupidly at the stone door as it fell down and latched itself in eight different places and, for that extra added effect, had chains shoot out from the walls and wrap themselves around the door, knotting in ways that blatantly indicated magic was involved in the trap. There could have been worse places for that to happen. The room was at least a pleasant twenty or so degrees cooler than the rest of the ruins.

"We can break it later." Natsu assured me.

For the record, we later found out we couldn't break it.

Before we discovered that, Natsu and I explored the room. Natsu wandered over to examine some old carving in the wall while I checked out a pedestal in the center. A small stone rested on top, shaped almost like a U.F.O. except that there were old runes etched into it. It… looked like the drawing from the job request. It tried to pick it up, but my fingers turned blue as my hand got close. Yelping at the sudden cold, I withdrew my hand before I could get frostbite.

Before _I_ could get frostbite? That had to be strong ice magic to affect me.

"I think I found the seal you need to break," I called to Natsu.

He came as fast as he could to inspect the stone. When he reached out his fingertips, rather than turning blue from cold, began to glow cherry red. As the glow drifted off of his fingers and onto the stone Natsu ripped his hand back. "Who was the client again?"

"I don't know. Is something wrong with the seal?" It looked like whatever Natsu done was working. The stone now rippled and shown in faint silvery blue light.

"That thing isn't taking fire magic to undo itself. It was trying to take _me_."

"Like what…? You're ability to use magic?"

Natsu shook his head, trying to find a way to describe it so that a simpleton like myself (asshole) could understand it. "I don't… It's taking some other part of me. Something tied to my magic but… If this is the stone the guy wanted I'm not finishing this job. I think this is one of those seals that takes human sacrifice to work. It just does the sacrificing itself."

"Oh… Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he muttered, looking away.

"You sure? If it tried to suck you out or-"

"My leg just hurts."

"Well… we should stay away from that."

Natsu nodded and went back to staring at the wall. With nothing else in the room I gave it a good look myself. The whole side of the room was one large stone slab with an image etched into it and what I'd guess was the story behind the image written beneath in the same runes as the ones on the stone that had tried to kill Natsu.

The image itself was fairly standard for what you'd expect in old ruins. Demons were raining down death on a panicked hoard of humans while what looked like an early rough draft of how angels should appear tried to hold them at bay. Now that I could see a larger sample of the runes I recognized them from a book that Levy and Fried had been arguing over. If I'd had anything to write on I'd have recorded them for the two to translate later.

After we grew bored or staring at a wall Natsu tried breaking down the door. Maybe he would have been able to do it if the stone hadn't tried to drain him, but why exactly didn't matter. What did matter was that he couldn't break down the wall either, and when I tried I couldn't even get my magic to work. Natsu complained that it felt like each time he tried to use fire the stone tried to pull if away from him. I just felt like the walls were designed to block me.

By that time Natsu was thoroughly tired of standing on his injured leg-which I could now see was a twisted ankle, and even showing fatigue from having been drained earlier. When I suggested we sit down and brainstorm other possible escape routes he acted opposed, but planted his butt on the floor even faster than I did.

We swapped ideas for a little while, but the one we kept coming back to was that the seal on the stone our client wanted might also be connected to the door. It wasn't like there was much else in the room. We both agreed that we weren't risking Natsu's life on the offhand chance that it would open the door, though, so that got us nowhere. The other popular idea, in the sense that it was mentioned at the end of every other theory, was that whatever control opened the door was actually located outside the room, and we just had to hope that Lucy found us in time.

Natsu probably came up with the worst idea of all the ones we mentioned. "Maybe this is one of those things where you can only break the seal by kissing?"

"I'd rather die than kiss you."

-o-

Ten minute later we were regretting fighting over that comment. I doubted the room was air tight, but we'd definitely wasted more oxygen squabbling than was able to get in through whatever cracks there were under the door. Natsu and I sat crouched against the wall, trying to keep our breath shallow and make the remaining air last.

"I could try the door again," Natsu told me.

"Fire uses up air too, stupid. Let me give it another shot."

"Your magic isn't working."

"My hands are."

Not for long they weren't. My first attempt was to try and pry the chains from the door. When I gave them a tug to test how tight they were they stirred slightly, but stayed in place. It was when I braced my foot against the door and pulled with all my might that they sprung to life, wrapping around my arm and squeezing like a vice.

Natsu hopped up to help me try and get out of them before they could reach any further up my body. As I found myself between a tug-of-war between the two I figured my shoulder would dislocate, but when the chains realized Natsu was winning they settled for snapping my lower arm and crushing my hand before retreating to the door.

"That's not going to work."

Natsu shook his head. "You don't have any more ideas, do you?"

It didn't sound like sarcasm, so I answered honestly. "All I've got now is hope Lucy and Happy find us before we suffocate." There was also the possibility that the door would open for a kiss. To be honest I would rather kiss Natsu than die. I'd especially rather kiss Natsu than die while I wasn't wearing any underwear. Kissing Natsu while not wearing underwear…? That sounded a little weird though. I decided not to bring that up again.

Natsu nodded. "That's what I was thinking. How long do we have?"

I tried to take a deep breath. The attempt made me light headed. "They'd better be right outside the door…"

Another nod. "Gray, I want to try one last thing. I need you to pass on a message to Erza for me."

"Natsu, I can't exactly contact her right now."

Ignoring me, Natsu carried on, walking towards the pedestal. "Tell her I'm sorry, because I know she feels the same way. And let Lucy know that I want her to take care of Happy. Oh! And also, I did this, alright? So you can't go and say it was your fault."

"…Natsu?"

He held his hand out towards the stone, fingers glowing cherry red.

"Natsu!"


	4. Lucy talks to Natsu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was first posting this on ff.net I would put up one chapter on the same day every week, and I'd mention the title of the next chapter when I did so. I did that just to make people read the title of this chapter and go "Oh, well Natsu's going to be fine."

I hadn't been too concerned when they first fell through the trap door Gray opened. He and Natsu both have a talent for surviving the most ridiculous amounts of damage. I sent Virgo down to fetch them but she reported that she couldn't break into the tunnel they'd fallen through _or_ create her own tunnel to where theirs have come out. All we knew was that they were about fifty feet below us, and had sounded alive.

That's when I got worried. Not over them being alive, that was a good sign. Virgo couldn't reach them, and the trap door had resealed while the button Gray had accidentally pushed had stayed pressed in. Of all the times one of the traps could finally stop working…

Happy and I had considered splitting up, but if the map I'd been working on was anything to go by then just the level of the ruins that we were on could stretch for miles. If we got separated there may be no getting back together.

It was getting late too. I was starting to think we'd be searching all night when I saw Natsu wave to me, running up excitedly, big, goofy grin on his face. Perfectly fine, as always. Stress that I'd been too stressed to notice eased away at the sight of him.

"Lucy! Happy! Thank God! Gray's been mad at me so he's ignored me for _hours_. We've just been wandering around in silence trying to find a way back up. I'd have beaten him for it but I'd feel kind of bad while his arm's messed up."

"Eh? Gray hurt his arm? Was it in the fall?" I asked.

"Gray's hurt?" Happy chimed in, looking at me in concern.

"Yeah. It looks really bad. We can find the stone later. It kinda of went away when I touched it anyway. Gray's just behind me. We should take him to see Wendy." Natsu paused. "Actually, I thought I hurt my leg but it's just fine now."

"Natsu… when you say it went away… you don't mean you _broke_ the stone our client wanted, do you?" I demanded. I could just picture it. And that job would have paid my rent for three whole months too.

"No. It vanished, and it left this weird amulet in its place."

"Well, maybe the client wanted that, but it was sealed in stone," I theorized.

"Either way, Gray needs a doctor." Natsu looked over his shoulder. "There he is. Oy! Gray! I found Happy and Lucy! Gray!"

Gray didn't look up, even though I'm sure he'd been searching for us just as hard as we'd been looking for them. He trudged along, head down, one bloody arm dangling, the other dragging something. I felt sick, wondering if he was in too much pain to focus anymore. Gray could be pretty resilient himself, but most of the guild didn't have Natsu's ability to ignore any personal harm when focused enough on a goal.

"That does look awful…"

"What looks awful?" Happy asked. "Lucy, who are you talking too?"

"She's talking to me," Natsu pointed out, motioning to smack Happy on the back of the head for being so silly.

His hand passed right through.

Natsu stopped grinning.

With perfect timing Gray noticed us. Unlike Natsu he didn't smile and wave, but he did pick up the pace while calling out, "Lucy! Happy! Over here!"

"Gray!" Happy called back, smiling, then freezing at the sight of his arm. "Lucy, that's mean. You should have told me he was there when you saw that he was hurt."

"I-"

"Gray! Lucy's being mean!" Happy cried, flying towards Gray. Natsu and I exchanged confused looks and followed after him.

Halfway to Gray Happy stopped completely, landing and staring past Gray in horror. When Natsu and I caught up with him we could see why. That thing Gray had been dragging…

I glanced at Natsu, who acted just like Natsu should have, but hadn't been able to touch Happy, then at Natsu, who had the injured leg that had been mentioned, but looked more like he was half-no-completely dead. I was standing next to a Natsu that only I could see or hear while Gray dragged Natsu's corpse along after him.

"Gray… is that…?"

Gray just nodded.

"Natsu…" Happy sobbed, running over and patting him up and down. Trying to find a breath. A pulse. Anything. "Natsu…"

"But I'm right here!" Natsu cried, loud enough to make me flinch. "Gray! Happy! I'm right here! H-hey!"

"How…?" I began. How were there two Natsus? Why was I the only one who could see the lively one? Why was the other dead? I could be hallucinating. But then how had I known about their injuries?

"It was that damn stone the client wanted," Gray hissed. "We found the room it was in, but it locked us inside. We couldn't get out. We were running out of air. Natsu decided to break the seal on the stone to see if that would open the door back up. That thing didn't need fire magic to break the seal. It needed the whole fire mage. He held his hand out in front of the stone and it practically sucked the life right out of him. I can't get any response from him at all now."

"No way…" Happy whispered.

"But…" I looked over to the Natsu who I'd been talking to a moment before. He looked as stunned as the rest of us. "But Natsu's… then who's that?" I asked, pointing to the Natsu who was still standing.

Gray and Happy both looked in the direction I pointed, looked right through Natsu, and looked back to me. "Lucy," Gray said slowly, confirming exactly what Happy had all but said earlier, "there's no one else here."

-o-

"I-I don't really think your crazy," my Natsu hallucination told me as we got aboard the train. "I mean, I know I'm not imagining myself. I don't feel like I died either, but… um… maybe… maybe I did. And you're talking to my ghost. But you're not crazy, Lucy."

I took a deep breath and tried to block him out. Crazy was what Gray and Happy had agreed on when I kept talking to my hallucination on the way out of the ruins. Not… exactly crazy. Just temporarily, from stress and the shock of losing a friend. It hadn't helped that I was the only one talking. The one who was really in shock was Gray, and Happy was… not happy just then.

The hallucination wasn't a perfect imitation of Natsu. When the train started he took a seat and didn't get sick, though he did act like he ought to be, marveling at how amazing it was to ride a train without feeling like he was going to throw up. I'd taken a seat away from Gray and Happy, away from everyone, so I wouldn't get too many looks if I caved and interacted with the hallucination again. When he continued to laugh at how fast a train could go, I glared at him.

"Be quiet."

"Eh? Lucy, are you mad at me?"

"I'm not in a good mood. I don't want to deal with going crazy on top of it. You're just my imagination, so I'm trying to imagine you shutting up."

Nats-My hallucination shook his head. "I'm real," he insisted. "I was only trying to help Gray get out. I didn't want to upset you. No one else can talk to me now. Even Happy. Please don't be mad. I don't want the only friend I can still talk to to be mad."

I didn't respond, trying to focus all my attention on the window. I did _want_ to talk to, well, to the closest thing to talking to Natsu, but this wasn't good. Being so affected by the death of a friend that you conversed with an imaginary version of him was beyond unhealthy.

"Lucy, please, I…" The hallucination paused, looking down at his body. I couldn't help but follow his gaze to his torso, which was becoming translucent. "Ah! That's not good! I don't want to disappear!"

Trying to ignore him was working. I shut my eyes and tried to block out the sound of him running around frantically trying to stop himself from fading away. It… hurt to ignore him, but it wasn't really Natsu. The real Natsu would have knocked everything over and destroyed the train. No. The real Natsu would have been too sick from being on the train to have run around in the first place.

I didn't open my eyes until we reached Magnolia. The hallucination was gone.


	5. Sting is in shock

I thought they'd never leave. It was noon by the time I was able to go back and get my clothes. Sure, spending that much time in the water was probably good for me, but if I were concerned with getting as much water as possible I'd have joined a school of siren or… whatever you call a group of them, if siren even stay in groups. That's irrelevant. The point is that I have a life on land, and I can't live it when girls are busy skinny-dipping right in front of where I hid my clothes.

I hadn't thought to bring a towel, and even though siren are supposed to have some degree of water magic I never inherited it. I shook myself dry as best I could and let the summer sun finish the job while I dressed.

I was still damp when I left the lake, but completely dry by the time I reached the guild. Besides insisting we be even more glued at the hip than normal while we got used to Magnolia, Rogue had wanted to start working right away after our fight in front of everybody last night. I'd had to sneak out before he was up so I could swim before we left. He must have decided that it wasn't worth tracking my scent just to avoid seeing everyone right after the way we drew attention to ourselves the other night. Or maybe he followed my scent all the way to my clothes, and decided it just wasn't worth it period. What mattered in the end was that he still had no idea I wasn't completely human. Siren are infamous for drowning people. I'd nearly been killed twice as a child, once in siren form, once by a man who knew I was only half. A man who worked for the government, and had been sent to kill the siren that the locals were reporting had taken up residence there.

Rogue would never sell me out, of course. I was more worried how he'd handle knowing I was so much more dependent on water than a full blooded human. His reaction could be anywhere from becoming overbearing about it too full on denial. When a doctor told me that I had a deathly allergy to cantaloupe he'd served it for a week before seeing me react to it enough times to decide that the man really must have been telling the truth. I didn't want him dragging me out into the desert just to verify that I needed to swim.

And Frosch… letting Frosch in on a secret was the ultimate security breach. Lector had known.. but… well…

Beyond greeting me no one responded to my arrival. Not even the girls, which meant that as far as they knew I hadn't seen them naked, which meant they had no idea why I turned bright red when I saw them.

_Erza looks even bigger without anything covering-_

But of course someone like me would never have perverted thoughts like that.

"Where were you?"

I flinched, having failed to notice Rogue sneaking up behind me. "I just went out to get some fresh air."

"For six hours?"

"No. Just five. I got lost at first."

Rogue rolled his eyes-or at least the eye that I could see-and gestured towards the job board.

"We have a while before we need to pay rent. I want to hang out here for a bit." At least long enough to figure out how the hell I was going to work with only a lake to get my swimming done with.

To keep him from arguing, I took a seat at the bar. Rogue growled softly, but followed me, sitting down as well. Sitting a little too close, actually. Rogue was neither social nor a loner, an incredibly awkward combo. He clung to the friends he had like a fungus, but he cared enough about not looking desperate to cling from a few feet away. If I could feel his leg against mine it meant something was wrong. His eyes looked a little glazed. Almost feverish. Maybe that was it?

Rogue was far from pleased when I reached up and felt his forehead, but his temperature was normal so I didn't pursue the topic further. The last time he'd disregarded personal space without a high fever was when we were eleven and Minerva has convinced him that Frosch ran away. Frosch was right there though, and Minerva wasn't, so I was at a loss for what to do.

"You two would make a cute couple," Mira whispered as she passed by with someone's order.

I decided that the best thing to do just then would be to get the hell away from anywhere Mira might pass by on her work route. When Rogue got up to follow me I heard her giggle.

Dammit Rogue.

I went to Reedus first while trying to shake my shadow and showed him the clay. He said that it wasn't a medium he was used to, but he'd be happy to give it a try and thanks for the thought. The thought was all I'd done it for anyway.

Next I asked where Levy was.

"I don't think she's back from the dorm yet," Erza told me. "I can go fetch her if it's urgent."

"It isn't."

Though it would be nice to know if she'd seen me from her window. I was _definitely_ never getting into the lake from the side the dorm was on again.

…Unless… Fairy Tail did seem pretty open… they even allowed Juvia. If they _knew_ I needed the water then maybe they wouldn't freak out if I took the fastest route to the lake. Too bad three people can only keep a secret when two are dead.

"Why did Sting want Levy?" Frosch asked as Erza walked away. "Is Sting Gajeel's love rival?"

Sensing Gajeel's glare from across the guild hall, all I could think to say was, "I thought Levy was Rogue's love rival."

That shifted Gajeel's gaze to a different dragon slayer, who apparently wasn't mad enough with me for having said as much to stop sticking to me like glue. Even when I walked right up to Gajeel, Rogue's blush only strengthened the slightest bit. There was no effort to avoid coming within twenty feet or the childhood idol who thought he might be gay or even to nonchalantly shift to a position where someone else was between himself and Gajeel.

"I think he's sick," I declared to no one in particular.

"He sounds pretty sick," Gajeel agreed, though I don't think he meant sick the same way I did.

Rogue's blush became strong enough to be visible to someone who hadn't grown up with him. "Nothing's wrong."

"Really?" I leaned in so my mouth was by his ear and dropped to a whisper. A dragon slayer's whisper. Even Gajeel wouldn't hear that. "This guild is much more lax. If you aren't feeling well I'm sure Makarov won't freak out at you for going home without taking a job."

"I'm fine," Rogue repeated into my ear. "Something just…"

Just what? I didn't know, but when I pulled away Rogue's blush was visible enough for people with skulls about as dense as Natsu's to notice.

"Don't tease him," Gajeel muttered dismissively, which actually helped Rogue regain his composure. He was going to say something more embarrassing than having Gajeel think I got away with picking on him? Interesting.

I would have prodded Rogue more if Levy hadn't come in right then. As soon as she seemed settled I took a seat next to her, which got Gajeel's evil eye directed back to me, and pulled out the amulet.

"I was wondering if you could read this."

Levy glanced up at me, amused. "Hello to you too."

"Hi. I was wondering if you could read this," I repeated.

Rogue took a seat on my lap (okay, just beside me, but he was close enough) and watched along with me as Levy picked up the amulet and spun it around, studying the clay filled markings and running a hand across the surface to see if I'd missed anything.

"Where did you find this?"

At the lake. I saw your naked butt. "I went for a walk earlier and saw sticking out of the mud," I fibbed. In a way it was true. I had walked to the lake, and I first seen the amulet when it was sticking out from the mud and clay that I was trying to wash.

True in a very small way, but I couldn't say I'd been swimming without getting bitch slapped. I glanced at Rogue to see if he'd seen through my lie-one of his many screwball talents is functioning as a lie detector-but his glossy eyed gaze had drifted to the door.

"I can't believe you just found something like this on the ground. This is a really old writing system. I do have some old records written using it, so I could use those to help translate the word here, but it might take me a while."

Levy was copying the runes onto a sheet of paper when the world came to an end. Again.

Lucy was the one to step in first. Her head was hung so low that her face was obscured by her bangs. Happy drifted in behind her. Gray followed carrying Natsu's body.

Natsu's body…

I mean, I'd already had to listen to the news that Natsu had died once. Was that really happening to me again mere months after he came back?

Wendy was the first up, running full speed to Natsu and Gray, trying to assess the damage done to both of them. I hadn't even noticed Gray's ruined arm until then.

I don't know what was said. All I could hear was my heartbeat hammering out of my chest as everyone rushed towards them. Even Rogue got up to try and confirm that it wasn't true. That Natsu wasn't really dead.

It wasn't.

It couldn't be.

Thank God it really wasn't.

"He has vital signs!" Wendy cried, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "I can barely find them, but they're there. He won't respond to anything though. I can't tell why. It… doesn't feel like a coma."

Rogue slipped out of the crowd and back into my lap.

"He's alive?" I confirmed.

"He's breathing, a little," Rogue murmured, resting a head on my shoulder. Okay, now this was getting creepy. But… if Rogue was as bothered by Natsu's condition as I was that would explain it-except then he'd had to have known ahead of time.

Had he? It could be a coincidence that he'd looked over as they would have been approaching the guild. It wasn't like he took an interest in anything anyway so his mind did wander.

"We should hold off on working," Rogue said in a dragon slayer's whisper. "It would look insensitive."

"Mm." I wouldn't have been able to focus on a job anyway.

It wasn't until we'd left the guild hall that evening that I realized Natsu's condition had bought me some time to figure out how long I could go out of water with this lake. I made a mental note to build him a bonfire as a thank you gift-if he ever woke up.


	6. Rogue has a secret too

A week is plenty enough time to mourn someone who isn't dead. Especially when you've just paid moving fees, have a new apartment that charges higher rent than your old place, and haven't worked for a while anyway because your old guild master wanted you home when the Grand Magic Games began.

"Maybe tomorrow," Sting muttered.

He didn't smell like he'd gone down to the lake again. Why he tries to hide that from me I have no idea, since I'm not even remotely interested in what he does with his free time. The lake is open, and of course people swim in the middle of July. Usually if he's putting something off it's when he's about to go swimming, but this time I have to admit he's just upset over Natsu.

"We need the money _today_ , and the job won't even be fast enough for that."

Picking his head up off a table that smelled like it had been dunked in booze every day for the past three years, Sting read the job description. "350,000J for a monster suppression. I suppose we could… no."

It took me a second to figure out what part of the page he'd frozen on. The job took place deep in the Hakobe Mountains. That was a ways inland-my gut told me was the problem. Sting wasn't comfortable going deep into a mountain range.

"The job should take five days," I told him. "Provisions are supplied by the employer. This guild has only started getting jobs again. This was the best I could find."

"But…" Sting stared at the paper as though it was his own notice of execution. "But… couldn't we do a few smaller, cheaper jobs?"

There was no guarantee that we'd finish enough in time to pay our rent and still have enough money left over to keep ourselves fed. I shook my head.

Sting groaned. I could see the excuses running through his head-and each rejection with it. Trying to milk Natsu's situation would make him feel like the sort of dirt he was trying to prove he wasn't (not to mention get us evicted when rent was due.) If he tried to argue about working in the cold I could go home and dig his coat out of the boxes we had yet to unpack. He could say he was… hard of breath? The absurdity of that lie stunned me so much I wasn't paying enough attention to figure out why that one wouldn't work.

Couldn't see why _he_ thought it wouldn't work, at least. Obviously he was breathing just fine so it wasn't hard to figure out why _I_ thought it wouldn't.

"Can we do the job in three days?" Sting asked. "I… would rather not have to spend a lot of time away while we're still getting settled."

"We can try." But I didn't know how he expected us to shave two days off the job. A lich is neither an easy monster to find nor to beat, even with the stench of death, two people with a natural talent for tracking, and someone who specialized in holy magic. Five days was the minimum time estimate.

"It's going to be cold…"

"Cover your midriff," I advised.

I heard Gajeel snicker. Usually that would make me worry he'd been eavesdropping on me, but the guild had been eerily quiet since Natsu didn't quite die. Aside from Sting and I the only people talking were Levy and Freed, trying to translate the runes they'd copied from Sting's… amulet. I wished he'd give the artifact to me, but I'd had a harder time coming up with a reason why he should then he was having getting out of work.

In the break in our conversation where Sting stuttered to come up with a good comeback he decided that, actually, listening to them pour over old books was the most fascinating thing in the world. I rolled my eyes and followed after him when he went to see how they were doing.

"How can you tell that that horse shaped thing makes an R sound?"

I grabbed the boa trim on his vest and yanked Sting up, giving him my best 'stop goofing off' glare.

"You're sure we can't do anything else?"

I didn't even bother nodding. Keeping my grip on his vest firm, I dragged Sting from the guild hall.

"We can't do this job fast enough."

Just ignore him.

"Why can't we just take a few smaller jobs? We're only paying 80,000J a month."

'Only' he says. "We borrowed to pay for the move. That's another 50,000J right there. We need to replace furniture that doesn't fit in our new apartment and who knows how much that costs. After that we still need to be able to pay for food. The next highest paying job available right now pays 25,000J. It's a week-long escort mission," I explained. Sting isn't as dumb as he acts half the time. He can do the math.

"W-well… can't you just go with someone else this time? Even if you split the pay we'd be able to pay rent and moving fees and have some money left over for food. Refurnishing the place can wait a bit longer."

Son of a… My _holy magic using partner_ wanted me to fight a lich with a random mage I met last week? The only one who might even come close to being useful was Lucy, and I couldn't ask her when she'd been there for Natsu's 'death.'

"Rogue, I _can't_ go." Sting insisted. He was… sounding a little hard of breath actually. I glanced back and saw his eyes had gone wide with panic.

"You should try something to calm yourself down while I get Frosch and pack," I suggested.

That alone made Sting relax. "Maybe a swim."

Oh, so we was admitting to it now. "If that helps."

Sting settled down somewhat after that, no longer struggling as I pulled him along. I could _feel_ the guilt radiating off of him though. He was hiding something. Something… that wasn't all that awful, if I couldn't guess what it was. Was he just embarrassed by it? Maybe he only wanted to keep part of his life private. That was his right, but it made me uneasy when I couldn't tell what he was doing. I'd rather he be involved in underground criminal activity. _Then_ I could easily figure out what he was hiding.

I tried to turn onto our street but Sting broke away, taking a few steps in the direction of the lake before noticing the look I was giving him. "I said I was going to go swim."

"Your suit should be in the apartment." In a box. Somewhere.

Sting opened his mouth to speak, paused, shut it, and tried again a few times. He looked like a fish, trying to explain himself. If he was skinny-dipping I didn't want an explanation anyway.

"Rogue!" Sting called out as I walked away.

Of course he wouldn't have something to say until I was leaving. I glanced back, trying to keep my annoyance from becoming visible.

"…how… what would you do if it turned out I'd been keeping something… something kind of big a secret?"

I am hiding something from you was what he meant, but I didn't have any right to complain about that-openly. Less of a right than he'd have, if he ever knew. Besides, Sting rarely looked as anxious as he did just then.

And what could he be hiding anyway? A weird habit of being nude in public? The Fairy Tail guild already had one of those types of people anyway. He couldn't be doing anything wrong. I didn't just have no right to complain. I was easily worse than him-but _he_ couldn't tell that.

"That's fine. Everyone's entitled to one secret."


	7. Natsu gets to play guardian angel

So I guess I died.

Right in front of Gray. In a room he'd carried me into before we got sealed inside. And I was being carried by that pervert because I'd injured my leg in a trap he sprung.

Well, it was my choice but it would have been nice to go back to earth and remind him of that. Lucy could tell him for me. She'd kept talking to me after I left my body. She could pass on the message.

…If she believed it was me.

Lucy telling me she was only imagining I was there had hurt. We were good friends. I thought we'd have some bond that she could feel even talking to my ghost. Er… to me. I'm my ghost. That's weird to think about.

People in the afterlife hadn't been that friendly either. Most of them would stare and keep their distance. If I chased them down and tried to talk they'd usually exchange a few words, but after a week I still hadn't made any friends, and I couldn't wish for my old friends to come join me. It was… lonely. I don't get how people can like not having anyone around. Happy wasn't there for me to get along with. Gray wasn't there for me to argue with. Lucy wasn't there for me to annoy. I was all on my own.

I must have gone to hell.

W-why? Was it because I broke people's homes? I didn't mean to (even if it was fun) so that didn't seem fair. Plus, hadn't I save people? Like when Lucy was going to be enslaved or when the Oracion Six were going to turn all the guilds against one another. And besides, there was something even stranger about all of this.

"Why is hell so white and fluffy?"

"This isn't hell," Someone told me.

That made them the first person to speak to me without having to be pinned to a wall first. I looked over my shoulder to grin at whoever was so kind.

Well… he didn't have a very kind expression, but aside from that he looked nice. "Whoa. You have wings just like Happy's!"

The man's scowl deepened. "I am eons your senior, yet you suggest I am mimicking your _cat_."

"You don't look that old."

"Thank you." The man put a hand to his cheek, suddenly showing a dazzling smile. "I moisturize."

"That's nice." Boring. "I'm Natsu."

"My name is Trisiel. I am the guardian angel for this plane of the heavenly realm."

"You're sure this isn't hell?"

The smile vanished. "Positive."

"Because everyone here's acted like a jerk."

"Many of them have been spirits for decades, well set in their ways. Having an outsider come in would be unsettling for them."

"Then why not send me to a 'heavenly realm' where I fit in?" I demanded.

"This is the proper realm for you. The problem is that you aren't actually dead. As true ghosts, they can see that you're still tied to your body. We occasionally have necromancers come in here to steal some of our spirits. You must have been mistaken for one."

This was getting annoying. "If I'm not dead why am I here at all?"

"Because while the bond between your soul and body is still intact, the life force needed for you to remain on earth has been stolen. Until it's recovered, you will be trapped outside of your body."

"When do I get it back?"

"You don't. A spirit can't manipulate objects on the earthly plane, so you can't do anything to the object that left you in this state."

"Then why tell me-"

"But an angel-even a temporary one-could, to some degree. You're familiar with Rogue Cheney?"

Familiar was pushing it. Rogue hadn't even been a member of the guild for a full day when I died so I'd missed out on getting to know him. "Why does an angel care about Rogue?"

Trisiel's scowl deepened, making him no longer look like an angel. If this guy had a problem with me then fine. After a week of everyone avoiding me I was itching for a fight. Even if I'd gathered that spirits didn't feel pain, a few good punches to his face would feel really good for me.

"Because he…" Trisiel shook his head. "It's not important. You know him."

"I'm familiar with him. Sure." Maybe this was about reigning down judgment on him for killing Skiadrum? Or I really was in hell and this demon was trying to trick me. "No… then why would a demon be interested in Rogue?"

"Since he's…" Trisiel stopped himself again.

"Ha! You gave yourself away, demon!"

Growling, Trisiel spread his wings out, holy light shining out that would put Sting's magic to shame. Overwhelming light that I thought would reduce me to nothing. "You dare be so disrespectful? Were it not for my oaths you would no longer exist you impudent upstart!"

"Impudent?"

"You disagree?" he snarled.

"What does that word mean?"

Trisiel's jaw dropped, his wings sagged, the light faded. "Of all the… you… how could…" he sighed. "It doesn't matter. You don't realize you offend. You're familiar with Rogue Cheney?"

"You keep asking me that." I nodded again just to humor him.

"Good. Normally when someone ends up in your situation our solution is to sever the connection to their body ourselves, especially someone whose father… was yours." Lucy says I'm dense, but he wasn't hiding the contempt in his voice when he said that so even someone as thick as Gray would have noticed it. Not that what he said even made sense. How many people had Igneel for a dad? "However," he continued, "At the moment we're in a bit of a bind. Last week you and one of your… guild mates, is it? You and one of your guild mates set off a chain of events that could end catastrophically. The end of mankind as the dominant species. Untold deaths. Even the heavens may not be safe from the disaster you idi… you people have unleashed.

"Normally this would get one of your kind sent to hell. The _actual_ hell. However, you've been a much better person-in terms of intent-than we'd have excepted, given your heritage. You also posses one quality that none of the angels here have."

"What's that?"

"You're not an angel." I couldn't make the angel mad again, so I didn't say anything about that one. "What we need is someone with no angelic nature that could alert our coming enemies. Due to _your_ inherent nature-and perhaps your lack of life force-you can perform this mission unnoticed by all but an angel. We will provide you with a weapon that can still effect the earthly realm, even if you yourself cannot."

"What if I don't want to do this mission?" Angel face had been a jerk anyway. Why should I help him?

Trisiel raised an eyebrow. "You'd refuse it? I'm sorry, but from what I saw of your records you seemed to be the type to care for your guild mates. I assumed you'd want to help guard them."

Rogue needed guarding? That was a good one. Even if I could beat him with a hand tied behind my back in my sleep he wasn't _that_ weak. "Is Rogue the one who started this… 'catastrophe?'" Because after taking a job where the client had intended to use me as a sacrifice I wasn't about to jump at the chance for another mission when Trisiel was keeping details secret.

"No. That would be the fish boy, and you, for breaking the first seal on Ecilan," Trisiel told me. Holding out his hands, light formed above his palm and crystalized into a cross shape as he continued. "Rogue is a target though, since his father is an associate of yours. Keep him safe and we'll provide you with the information you need to restore yourself."

"Why wouldn't his father have been associated with mine?" If there were as few dragons left as I thought then they should all know each other.

"It's obvious to you? Good. Then I don't need to get into detail on the danger Rogue Cheney is in." Trisiel shoved the cross into my hands. "Once you are returned to the earthly plane you will be able to channel your magic through that to form a blade. Keep it away from your body. With neither your soul or your life force currently inside, your flesh can easily burn."

"Wait. Why is-"

"Just defend Rogue Cheney and you won't have to see a real hell," Trisiel said. "Oh, and be careful not to make your presence known to anyone. We don't like the living to learn about the afterlife."

-o-

And then I was back in the guild.

I was back in the guild!

I laughed, looking around, hoping to see someone who I could get a reaction from. Sting wasn't around. I couldn't see Gajeel either. Gray was over in the corner moping. I ran to him, so excited to see familiar faces I tripped over my own feet and fell right through a table.

Oh yeah. I was just a spirit. None of them could even see me.

None of them except Lucy.

I stood up and brushed myself off, having managed to pick up spirit dust, then scanned the room for her. If I were still 'alive' I could have easily smelled her, but I couldn't pick up scents here so if I didn't see her then-there! Over with Mira at the bar, pretending she wasn't looking at me.

Wait, wasn't I supposed to avoid revealing myself?

I looked away. If she was pretending she'd imagined me then I was going to say I only imagined her looking at me. If I wanted to get back to being alive so Gray would stop moping in a corner I needed to protect Rogue. He and Sting had moved into the apartment right next to Lucy's, though I think she hadn't noticed by the time that stone stole my life. Sting smells so much like the ocean that it's hard to imagine _anyone_ not noticing his scent from a block away, but Lucy is lacking in a few areas that aren't her chest.

I'd just avoid her gaze by hanging out next door.

-o-

That failed fast. Sting and Rogue were gone. They weren't in the guild _or_ their apartment, and I can't imagine them having anywhere else they'd want to be besides working.

I went back to the guild to try and find where they'd gone. Mira kept a book of all the jobs that had been taken just above the glasses behind the bar… but we hadn't moved back into the old guild hall yet. Finding the records in the rundown wind mill took me half the day.

Then I learned I couldn't even pick it up.

"Mira, has anyone gone on a job recently?" Lucy asked.

I could feel her gaze on my back…

"Mm… Oh. Sting and Rogue left this morning. I thought you'd have heard them. Sting was making a huge fuss about it."

"R-really? I guess I've already learned to tune that idiot out. Where were they going?"

"The mountains. They took that lich job."

What? I wanted to do the lich job!

"That's the one Natsu wanted," Gray said for me, "but the master told him about the special request, so we went on that first…"

I didn't have to turn my head to see it. I could _hear_ the look Lucy and Mira exchanged.

"Gray, go home and rest," Mira said. "Your arm will heal faster if you don't lie your head on it like that."

"I want to be here when Natsu wakes up."

I wanted to listen for any confessions I could use against him later, but my mission came first. If it didn't, I wouldn't have a later to make Gray eat his words. Protecting Rogue was my top priority. I just had to find him in the middle of the mountains.


	8. Jellal has a bad dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A consequence of writing this before GMG ended is that Ultear is still alive...

I woke with a cry, hands darting to my torso, trying to check how bad the injuries were and maybe, if I was lucky, catch the damn whip before the fat pig could pull it back and lash out again. Having a pair of arms, even thin ones, wrap around me did nothing to calm me down, and I was starting to thrash when they spoke.

"It was only a dream."

No matter how many times she said it, her voice always left me stunned, thinking Zeref had come back to tempt me again, and I'd become too paralyzed by fear of what I'd do, or how I would certainly do it, to move. It always took me a moment to register that, yes, it was the same voice that had corrupted me, but no, that wasn't what Ultear was trying to do. She just didn't want me hurting myself again like the first few times I'd had the nightmare.

Moaning, I sat up and looked around, still panting heavily from the shock. Merudy had slept right through the ruckus. That would have been good, except it didn't mean I was getting better at controlling myself when I woke up still in the nightmare. It meant that Ultear was getting better at snapping me out of it quickly, or worse, that Merudy was so used to it that it no longer disturbed her.

I was still trembling when Ultear reached out and placed a hand on mine, initiating the final step of the nightmare ritual. "Was it the whips again?"

I licked my lips, which had managed to become painfully dry after I'd fallen asleep, and nodded. At some point I'd decided that it was only lying if I _said_ it. That some point was probably back when I really had been under Ultear's control.

Come morning I'd regret the lie. I always did. I'd want to tell her what the nightmare was really about. A sterile room with magic visibly dripping from the walls and a hunger like nothing I'd ever had to endure in the tower and men in lab coats who would cast the same horrible spells on me again and again, taking note of how loudly they made him scream. But… there was never a good chance. By morning she and Merudy would be pretending that the fact I even _had_ nightmares was just a bad dream.

There was no telling her at night. Merudy had still been little when they first started coming, and had been instructed not to get involved. She steered clear, and snapping me back to reality was Ultear's job. It hardly worked at all. She could make me realize I wasn't still in the tower. I wasn't eleven again. I was a full grown man sleeping in the wilderness with two women who weren't quite as beautiful as Erza. She could make me realize in a way that I wouldn't allow myself too during the day that I was in the middle of nowhere with the woman who'd made me hurt Erza and Simon and everyone else, and that her word was all I had that the nightmare was over.

The nightmare always threw me back into my own trauma. I'd wake up confused and terrified and in pain and my mind would register which situation it was that I'd felt like that in. If Ultear thought it was just bad memories of the tower I'd let her think that. I didn't want to give her any weaknesses to exploit that she hadn't already ruined his life with. Not when I'd just woken up thinking the whole disaster was about to start again.

Once Ultear crawled back into her own sleeping bag I slipped out of mine and trudged off into the woods. I was still shaken, but aware enough of how the situation always went to know that taking a walk away from Ultear would help me settle down. I was already tired enough to pass out. I just needed my heart to stop racing.

-o-

I woke up beneath an old tree. That wasn't uncommon for a morning after having the nightmare. It looked like the sun was up too. By this time Ultear would have gone out to search for me, promising Merudy my blood for leaving the safe zone around camp during the middle of the night. I decided that I'd go back to camp and cook and maybe if food was waiting for her she wouldn't be too mad at me for making her search.

I was almost done with preparations when they stepped back into the campsite.

"Sorry," I said, smiling up at them with as much innocence as I could manage and saying the last lie to accompany the nightmare. "I went to refill our water supply, but I guess I got lost trying to find the stream. That's what I get for walking off right when I wake up."

Merudy glanced at the canteens, right were she'd left them the night before, but didn't mention it. Sitting down by our fire, she asked, "You made enough for all three of us this time?"

I froze. Had I? Looking at it… maybe. Sometime I'd only make a meal for Merudy and myself without realizing it. Ultear's punishment was to eat my share and make me wait until lunch. There's nothing like having to starve right after a nightmare and a flashback to never being fed enough, but if I just split it so everyone got slightly smaller portions… "It looks like there's enough."

"Good. I'm famished. Don't worry about cooking it all the way. I like mine a little runny."

I scooped out a bowl for Merudy and let her dig in, waiting a few more minute before splitting the remainder between Ultear and me.

"We've got a big day ahead of us," Ultear announced. "We're closing in on Shadow Alp's research facility. Once we get there Jellal-"

"Will go around back and wait for the ones who try to escape while I run in. Afterwards you'll collapse the building on top of anyone hiding inside. We're supposed to go through with it at precisely 5:14 but if you think the rest of the plan is going according to a strict schedule you're overestimating your ability to predict the enemy," Merudy said. "You're also underestimating our ability to remember something you told us a hundred times yesterday."

"It was closer to fifty," I argued.

"It was three! So _rry_ if I want to make sure this goes as planned."

-o-

Shadow Alp was the council's dirty secret that everyone knew about. Whenever someone disappeared from nearby all the townspeople would whisper about the men in S.A. uniforms they'd seen near the missing person's home, but there was never enough proof for the council to convict them. Having served on the council ourselves, Ultear and I knew that meant less than nothing. If someone was of use to the council, there would never be evidence against them. If someone was a nuisance, well, I still remembered the time that Erza had been blamed for every single criminal act of a dark guild she'd stopped, because they needed someone to pin the near murder of dozens of old men on. If the council ever had evidence against someone, regardless of the person's guilt, there were good odds they'd made that evidence themselves.

Shadow Alp was heavily protected by the council. They did more magic research than anyone else in Fiore. Their recent efforts focused on recreating the Living Magic that Zeref had once been known for. The recent rumor was that they were trying to give magic life by taking it from humans. The recent increase in unidentified corpses turning up in the area around the group supported this idea. Even if not, Merudy had made sure to catch them attempting several abductions before our group had agreed to end the experiments.

At exactly 5:14 I heard a crash from inside the lab. According to Ultear I was supposed to intercept the first escapee three minutes later, but it took less than a single minute for someone to flee. I trapped them with a snake binding spell and was tying them up with actual rope when the next S.A. member ran by.

For a moment my breath caught, flashbacks of spells that made him scream darting through his mind. He was colored normally, he lacked the surreal waves of energy that I saw in my sleep, but the man running away was the one in my dream who always took notes while I was being tormented.

The man who… the man who was running away? Crap! I couldn't let anyone escape! Not after the saw Merudy!

Giving the ropes around my first captive one last tug, I darted after the man from my nightmares.


	9. The Spell leaves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one reviewing this fic on ff.net picked up on it, but I always felt like the spell's identity was obvious... *shrug*. He's kind of in this weird place between canon character and OC. I like him.

Even in the detainment chamber in the basement I felt the building tremble. What were they doing this time? Last week they'd taken a snip of my hair and tried to create an animated doll by sewing the strands in. The week before they'd wanted to create a new celestial spirit. That had ended even worse, and hurt a bit for me too when the king came out in a fury over them 'tampering with the natural order.'

I'd made myself small and hoped he didn't notice the most unnatural thing in the room.

This time it didn't sound like a spacial rift. I saw no magic hinting towards yet another underworld demi-demon having been called up from the earth to possess that dumb doll again either. It looked like… time magic? Maybe. They'd never demonstrated time magic in front of me, but sometimes when I reached into _his_ mind I saw it. I saw things through _his_ eyes when I did, and everything looked strange and barren, but I'd figured that time magic would normally waver and ripple like this energy did.

I couldn't think of anything those bastards would want to test that used time magic, but I could never guess what they were going to do next, even after six years of being at the mercy of their whim-and their whim was not merciful.

Another crash. This time a piece of the ceiling came down, clipping my arm. I gritted my teeth and clutched the injured area, backing up into the part of the room that was beneath the stairs. The knowledge I got from _him_ said it was the safest place for me to be.

It never takes long for pain from regular objects to fade, but the building collapsed in even less time.

I looked out at all the rubble that had fallen into my room for the past six years staring and waiting… waiting… waiting…

Waiting for what? For one of _them_ to come back for me? Did I want that? No. Did they want that? Yes, and that was an even more compelling reason to get the hell out of there.

…but then where did I go. What I learned from _his_ memories was random. I knew about a few towns here and there, but not how they connected, or if they were close by, or even where I was. That was something to worry about when I got to it, though. First I had to make sure I was far away before those idiots got organized and realized that collapsing their whole lab on themselves had given me a chance at freedom.

Freedom? The word rung a bell so hard my ears rang.

One of _his_ memories. I tried not to dwell on the useless, fragmented information. I just had to get out before they found a new box to keep me in.

Climbing over the rubble wasn't hard at all after the obstacle courses from hell I'd been asked to run. A few sections of wall that had been enchanted to keep me from breaking them myself burned my hands as I crawled over them, leaving blue tinted skin and blisters that would take their sweet time fading away. That was fine. Probably. A meal and a few days rest was usually all it took to recover from a real injury, but if I wasn't staying in the lab then those bastards wouldn't be supplying me with food whenever I got hurt. I could live without it, but having injured hands for longer because of it would be a nuisance.

I'd only seen the woods surrounding the lab once, from the back of the van I was brought in on. Following the trail was the safest way of getting to civilization without getting lost, but it was also the easiest way to get caught. If I strayed too far trying to keep track of it I ran the risk of mistaking another clearing for the path. From a distance grass and dirt look the same if I don't squint.

It was too late in the day for the grass to still be damp, but I found a cool stream to rest my hands in after walking a ways. Where there was water there was civilization, _his_ knowledge told me, but from what information came with that phrase it seemed that didn't literally mean _everywhere_ there was water. Following the path was a better bet than following the small steam of burnt-hand-relief.

Actually… walking all on my own felt… awful. There was a voice in my head that was singing for joy over my liberation, growing louder with each step I took away from that hell hole, but I'd only been completely alone once in my life, after the large man with the second nature inside him and the staff that was full of life took _him_ away. Even then, that had only been for a few days after my birth before the Council found me and had me sent to the lab.

I didn't see another soul on my walk down the path until the sun had sank. Surely those bastards hadn't taken so long to reach the lab every day. I didn't remember it having taken as long to get from the nearest place where they might live to the lab on my way into the lab either. There must have been more to vehicles there than I'd thought.

The woman just outside of town watched me come out of the woods. I smiled at her and watched her features go from frozen shock to complete horror. She squeaked and ran and I just watched, frozen myself. Why…? She must have realized I wasn't normal. Wasn't natural. Wasn't human. Would they all react that way? I hoped not. If I couldn't find anyone who would help me figure out where to go from there then I didn't know… well… where to go from there.

People never ran away from me before. They always leaned in way too close and stared right. In. To. My. Eyes. It was a foreign situation. How was I supposed to know she'd freak out if I chased her?

I'm not so socially inept that I can't recognize a shriek of terror when I hear one. I stopped, wondering why she'd done that when I only meant to explain my situation, and found myself surrounded by a group of wizards.

No anti-mages in the bunch. I put up a mild resistance when they attacked me, but not enough to give them a real reason to be upset. Once one got my arms behind my back I waited for them to ask what I'd been doing so I could explain that I'd done nothing wrong.

"What's this lowlife doing here?" One of the wizards demanded.

"Nothing good. Someone contact the Rune Knights!"

"I wasn't-"

The fist that slammed into my stomach didn't hurt too much, but it did startle me out of what I'd been saying.

"Don't let him cast any spells! Get Barner while you're at it. He just came back from his last job. We need an anti-mage to hold him while the Rune Knights get here."

Anti-mage? Screw explaining myself. I twisted, yanking the lighter of the two men holding me off of his feet and sending him tumbling to the ground. The larger man, the one who wanted the anti-mage, did some twisting of his own, but he couldn't do any serious damage to my arm no matter how loud the sound of joints snapping was. Using him as my anchor I swung up and kicked. I didn't have the most flexible body out there, but with my body in midair it wasn't hard to reach his face. He fell backwards with me on top of him. The jolt of landing on my broken arm _did_ hurt, but I could already feel the bone knitting back together. Exactly as it had been. Always as it was.

"Bastard," the smaller one spat at me. The girl was screaming like a creature possessed. All I'd tried to do is ask for help and defend myself.

"Barner!" Someone cried. I hadn't noticed a crowd forming. "Barner over here! Stop him!"

Crap.

No more time to go easy, I pulled out the first big spell that came to mind, blasting a wave of black magic through the crowd. It wasn't my specialty, but that meant I wouldn't harm them enough to give reason to chase. Before the anti-mage could catch up I charged up a spell that came much more naturally and flew through the path I'd opened up, darting between buildings until I was a ways away from the town. My spell held up for a good 90 seconds before my body remembered that my hands were burned and I'd had no recent meals to help me charge up and I crashed into the ground.

For a while I lay there, wondering where the situation had gone wrong. Chasing the girl, maybe, but when I'd tried to explain myself the men had acted as if someone like me was automatically a threat. Automatically something to expose to anti-magic.

Someone like me.

Someone as unnatural as me.

Something as inhuman as me.

If I was human, would they have welcomed me? Would the bastards in the lab have treated me as kindly as they had one another? I'd never even considered it.

If I was human…


	10. Sting can't breath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally supposed to be two chapters. Merged them. This is where the real plot starts, and needing 10 chapters just for setup is ridiculous.

One day. It had taken me one day to start suffocating. Why? Why did my body have to do this to me? Was it because the air was thinner? If the lake gave me three days at sea level, it seemed it was a lot less higher up.

Rogue had packed a thick winter coat for me, but I was still certain I'd get hypothermia by the time we found his damn lich. Whenever he and Frosch weren't looking I would gulp down a fistful of snow. It only barely helped ease my breathing, and it was keeping me constantly chilled, but it helped my breathing, and if I had to struggle four more days in the mountains then I was going to need all the help I could get.

Thinking about it was almost enough to send me into hysterics-but I couldn't afford to waste the air.

Dammit. I missed the ocean.

"Sting," Rogue called out, hesitation for just a moment when he saw I was shivering.

"I-I'm c-c-com-ming," I responded, not able to raise my voice quite as much as he had.

And Frosch was just sitting on Rogue's head, perfectly content with her fur and frog suit. Damn her. Damn Rogue too for making me come out somewhere like this. And damn that lich for being so hard to find. I wasn't going to last five days. I'd be lucky to make it two. If this job had come with a hotel to return to each night I could have tried to eke out a bit of 'swimming' in a tub, but all we got was instructions on how to safely camp in avalanche country.

"Is Sting alright?" Frosch asked. "Fro thinks he looks shaky."

Rogue gave me a more thorough look over then declared, "we'll be far enough into the mountain soon that it will be too time consuming to go back, but if you're having trouble the air shouldn't be as thin once we get into the next valley."

So I looked more like I was suffocating than freezing? Great. Just great. "M-m-maybe we c-could j-j-just g-go back."

Rogue shook his head. "You're healthy. You can survive thin air."

Healthy he says. I can choke on oxygen and he thinks I'll be fine. I grumbled about it, but with my teeth chattering so badly that it came out sounding so awkward that _Rogue_ had to stifle a laugh.

Whoever coined the term 'not a snowball's chance in hell' didn't realize how hellish snowy mountains were. I was still wheezing by the time we'd gotten into a low enough altitude that my head wasn't swimming and Rogue decided to set up camp. The only upside was that he got a nice fire going, and I spent the evening standing so close I could easily roast myself and turning cupfulls of snow into warm drinking water.

"Rogue… if we don't… find this thing… tomorrow morning… I have to go…"

Rogue glanced over at me, starting to protest, but stopping when he saw that I was still breathing heavily. "Are you sick?"

An easy out! "Y-yeah. I wasn't feeling… so good yesterday… and in this cold…"

The living lie detector kicked in. "If you don't want to tell me the real problem you don't have to."

And if I tell you in the first place that I really don't want to do a certain job you should listen!

He didn't make me speak anymore, at least. When dinner was done cooking he served me silently and confirmed through questions that I could answer by shaking my head or nodding that I wouldn't suffocate overnight. I wasn't actually sure, but by that point I doubted I could make it back to town without being carried, so if he tried to send me back in the middle of the night I was screwed anyway. I insisted that I'd be fine until morning.

-o-

I was not fine until morning, though I had developed a great deal of sympathy for people with sleep apnea. I was no longer breathing heavily, but only because it hurt to take in more than the smallest gasps of air. Rogue took one look and me and decided we needed to head back immediately.

Frosch sat on _my_ head as Rogue hiked back up out of the valley, but only because my chin was resting on Rogue's head while he carried me. I couldn't reach for snow to try and extend my breathing time a few more seconds, so I poured energy into assuring Rogue that I would be fine to leave in a hotel room while also giving him a sense of urgency. The thinning air was starting to make it hard to stay conscious when the trail gave out beneath Rogue's feet and all three of us went tumbling down. Frosch caught Rogue, but I landed hard on my back just when getting winded was the last thing I needed.

I blacked out, so I couldn't say what happened next. When I came too I heard fighting, but it took a lot of effort to push myself up and see Rogue trying not to get killed fighting a giant mass of translucent rags with a skull sticking out the top.

Oh. That was the lich he wanted my holy magic to fight. No way was I getting up and moving over to that thing. A breath attack… still sounded stupid, but Rogue needed help. Ignoring the burning feeling as I forced my lungs to take in a big gulp up oxygen and blasted a laser at the creep.

"Sting?"

Rogue looked over at me like he was afraid I might die at any second. Certainly felt that way. If nothing else the coughing fit wasn't helping. Nor was that unholy screeching noise the lich had started making. Nor was the way if pulled a scythe out of thin air and charged at me, raising the weapon up in a perfect arc to cut my face in two… Shit.

Rogue lunged towards me too, but Frosch got their first, knocking into the lich with all her little kitty might just as it brought the scythe down and throwing off it's aim the slightest bit. The hair it cleaved off would grow back, but I couldn't brush off the way its weapon shattered the ice beneath me.

Or could I? It was so cold it burned, but we'd landed on a frozen lake. Would Rogue notice if my breathing was suddenly fine? Yes, but who cared? Breathing was way more important than having him wonder _why_ I was breathing, and if I was already that close to suffocating then the only difference with developing hypothermia was that it was going to get a later start.

It took my numb fingers too long to get my clothes off. I had to hold onto them this time, which would make swimming hard, but if I tore my clothes changing forms then it it would be harder to explain why I resurfaced naked-assuming I managed to resurface.

The shift to my siren form was only mostly painless. The rush of cold water through my gills sent a sharp chill through my whole body, but I was breathing again, and I'd almost thought I'd get see Lector, so that felt good to say-in a bitter sweet sort of way.

The cold was murder though. I clutched my clothes tighter to try and keep my arms from going numb and felt something slip out from my pants pocket. But what… the amulet! I lit the water and swam after it. Lakes can't get as deep as the ocean, and the odds of their being another monster here were slim, and it was getting warmer so…

…getting warmer?

It was definitely getting warmer. The water went from frigid to pleasant in the blink on an eye, and as I swam deeper it actually became hot. Messing with unidentified magic, which was almost certainly what I was doing swimming through a hot spot in a frozen over lake, was dangerous, but so was suffocation and hypothermia-which I'd still be risking when I swam back up. I went deeper.

The old, worn stone on my amulet glowed, letting me watch as it hit a smooth rock of the lake floor.

No, that wasn't quite right. There was something carved into the stone. Intensifying the light in my hand, I tried to read the runes carved into what was actually a large, sunken tablet, but they were the same archaic alphabet as on my amulet. I could easily admire the image carved in with the words, depicting a battle of angels and demons, but I'm not a huge art person so I didn't admire them for long.

In one of my greatest moments of failure since I let Lector die, I reached down with my free hand for the still glowing amulet.

If you've ever grabbed hot metal and had it melt onto your hand, you'd know how frightening it is. I yanked my hand back, trying to get what I assumed to be molten whatever metal that was from burning me. The amulet-turned-goo stuck to me, slipping between my fingernails more effectively that the clay I'd picked out of it had. Pure heat oozed up my arm, down my chest, and settled into my stomach as the amulet disappeared completely.

The stone cracked, sound booming out and echoing around me. Red mist seeped out. I decided I'd gotten enough swimming in. I could breathe long enough to get out of the mountains and way from the lich and my second bottom of the lake monster for July. Never before in my life had I encountered any trouble with lake monsters and now I found two in one month.

I shifted back in stages as I swam back up. Changing my arms and torso back but keeping my webbing so I could still swim somewhat while I wiggled back into a shirt and coat. I waited until I'd found the break in the ice where I'd fallen through to get rid of my tail and put my pants back on. No sense in slowing down when I could see red mist drifting up and coiling around to follow my own path.

Rogue wasn't waiting for me by the hole in the ice, but he was locked in battle with the lich so I forgave him for that. I'd help, but I was busy trying to scamper out of the water.

"Sting!" Frosch cried.

"A hand, please," I grunted. It hadn't been as cold coming back up, but now that I was back out of the water…

Rogue glanced over at me for a second, and took a scythe to the leg while he was distracted. There was no cry of pain, and Frosch didn't notice until she'd helped drag me out. I held her back when she tried to fly for him and readied another roar. I wasn't shaking so badly that I couldn't hit the damn lich… probably.

Red mist erupted from the hole in the ice, rapidly spreading around the lake then condensing between me and the lich and Rogue. Tendrils of mist wrapped around one another, twisting and tightening until the mist took the shape of a humanoid lizard, maybe Elfman's height.

The lich fled. I could feel dark magic radiating from this thing and the lich _fled_. Holy magic or not, I wasn't taking on something that could emanate enough dark magic to scare off the undead.

And there was Rogue, staring at it misty eyed, a goofy grin and a goddamn blush on his face.

I tossed Frosch towards my partner, snapping the shadow happy idiot out of his stupor when a pink frog suit connected with his head, and made a run for it. I heard some mild argument and looked back to see Frosch dragging Rogue away as well. Frosch disagreeing with what she was told was actually more impressive than Rogue deciding to stay and let some red mist monster kill him. I'd have to buy her fish. Just as soon as we had the money for rent and moving fees and food.

-o-

I didn't stop running until my breath began to catch again, having ignored the cold as my drenched clothes all but froze around my skin. Frosch deposited Rogue beside me. The idiot seemed fully himself again, calm and serious and scowling at the world.

"Your breath again?"

I nodded.

"I can carry you two. I've had some time to rest after fighting the lich. Are you cold?"

Another nod. Though… not as much as I should be. By this point I knew I ought to have frost bite, but the heat in my stomach was still strong enough to keep my extremities from icing over.

Rogue helped me onto his back, and Frosch climbed back onto his head. I could see the nearest town from there. It looked so warm and inviting. I'd have a warm bed and a hot bath and there'd be members of the army posted about to fight off any mist monsters that might seep down from the mountain.

Rogue had made an idiot of himself when that monster was around, so I returned the favor and ignored his order not to fall asleep.

-o-

I woke up as Rogue was setting up camp, and while I wasn't thrilled not to get a bed a thick sleeping bag would do just as well. Especially one set by the fire.

"You need to get out of your wet clothes," Rogue said when he saw me sitting up.

I dug through our camp bag for my regular outfit. The one I'd had to get retailored after fighting Natsu. But as I was putting it on I looked down and decided that it might not be the best idea.

Rogue raised an eyebrow as I came over wearing his samue. "It looked warmer," I told him, which got a nod and kept me from having to argue over stealing his clothes.

Rogue had made tea and a fast soup while I'd spent time finding clothing that would hide my navel. I was more than happy to take in more warmth, gulping down my servings of both in record time. Afterward I crawled into my sleeping bag and, as a thank you to Rogue for getting me the rest of the way out of the mountains, didn't snap at Frosch when she patted my head and sang a lullaby.

After the previous night I thought sleep would have come easy, but I'd forgotten that I'd napped for half the day. I spent the night lying awake, wondering what I was going to do about the glowing red rune that were wrapped around my belly button.


	11. Natsu hasn't done anything useful yet

Elfman sucks at comforting people.

Mira's not that bad, though. I should try doing what she does some time, but what I say works too. Usually. If she tried cheering Gray up the way I did he'd still be in a bad mood and have a bruise on his stomach to justify it. Or maybe he'd be reminded of the time I tried to snap him out of a bad mood that way and feel even worse.

"Come on, Gray. You need to get up and do something. I can take you out for ice cream. My treat."

If he went for that I was never going to let him live it down.

Mira sighed and leaned back against the bar counter. "And we can go down to the beach. I just got a new suit, though it's a little loose. You could be the first to see it." She snuck a glance Gray, but the possibility of seeing Mira in a swimsuit that may slip off hadn't gotten any reaction.

"Gray, man up! Natsu wouldn't want you sulking!"

"I don't," I added just in case, but none of them had heard me yet. Lucy still shifted uncomfortable, but we'd worked out a system for pretending she didn't notice me. It went like this: she pretended not to notice me and I didn't try to make her acknowledge that she did. So far it was working well, and hopefully the angel wouldn't get mad at me for being seen by her.

Although I wanted to ask her to pass a message on to Gray to please get off his butt and at least go buy groceries. Gramps had ended up pitching in some of the guild funds pay for Gray's rent and keep him fed, and was now considering paying for a shrink. Gray would go home when the guild closed its doors, but be waiting outside when they opened in the morning. Then he'd just sit at the bar with his head resting on the counter and only speak to ask if I'd woken up-with a small exception for when Wendy and the old lady had tried to fix his hand and settled for setting the bone in place.

Lucy walked right through me-her special way of screaming 'I can't see you' and sat down next to Gray. "Erza and I are going on a job. You know how she can be… intense. It would be nice if there was another voice of reason to help me pay my rent."

"You've got a good balance," Gray grumbled. "On nut and one rational person on the job. Without Natsu you don't need anyone else helping you-especially not the person at fault for what happened."

"It wasn't your fault. Natsu _chose_ to break that seal."

"Because we were going to run out of oxygen if he didn't. He suggested _kissing me_ before he gave it another shot."

Had I? Wait… yeah. I had. I'd just been trying to piss him off as payback for dropping me down a trap door and carrying me around like a toddler. I didn't mean to give him more reason to be gloomy!

"Well I don't want balance, I want to outweigh her," Lucy declared. "Work with us, Gray. Get off your butt!"

She was trying to yank him from the chair when Rogue and Sting entered.

"Oh. I thought you two would be away longer. Did you finish your…" Mira stopped, taking in the picture of the two of them. Mostly Sting. He looked ashen, dressed in the sort of weird stuff Happy would insist I had to put on during holidays, and clinging to Rogue's back. Each breath clearly hurt.

_So why didn't they take him home?_

"Did something happen?"

"Just a cold," Sting muttered, not lifting his chin from a nook he'd found in Rogue's neck. "I haven't even had trouble since… we got off of the train. Rogue's overreacting." Didn't look like Rogue was overreacting, and Sting actually looked a bit content clinging to him like that. Maybe hugging Rogue was some sort of forbidden fruit thing?

I gave it a try, but my arms slipped right through him. When the angels put me back in my body I'd use my recovery as an excuse. That stern face needed a hug as badly as Gray needed a kiss-which he'd be getting from someone else. No way was I going anywhere near that freak's lips.

"There was also a big gas monster," Frosch told them. "Fro thought it was going to poison Rogue! He wouldn't run!"

"The lich?" Mira asked. "It shouldn't have looked like gas, though."

"It didn't," Rogue said, setting Sting down at one of the tables. "This monster chased the lich off before noticing us. It followed Sting up after he fell into a lake."

"I got knocked in," Sting argued before coughing.

"No wonder you're sick!" Mira cried. "Let's get you some tea. On the house. Then you need to go home and rest."

"S'fine," Sting mumbled.

Mira ignored this and went to make tea anyway. "But a monster that could scare away a lich is worrisome. What did it look like?"

Rogue described it in minimal detail. A red monster that could spread out into a thin mist or condense into something similar looking to the devil. I'd never heard of something actually resembling the devil, so why did that description sound familiar?

"I've seen that!" Gray said suddenly, actually lifting his chin off of the counter and making eye contact with Rogue. "There was a monster like that in a carving Natsu and I found before he… passed out. It was far down in the ruins, and old."

"A carving?" Sting asked. "Like… a big stone slab with a picture carved into it, you mean?"

Gray nodded. "It took up the whole wall of the room where _it_ happened. It was a huge image of a fight between a bunch of angels and demons. I couldn't read what it said though."

"I saw one like that too." Sting coughed. "The mist creature came out of it."

"Maybe you broke a seal?" Mira suggested

A seal… that's right. The angel had said something about me breaking the first seal on somebody. But Sting hadn't been anywhere near where I'd shot my soul out of my body breaking that seal. Besides, wasn't the other one at fault for the big mystery calamity I couldn't get details on supposed to be a fish boy? Sting did smell like salt water and seaweed, but calling him fish boy was a bit much.

Of course, that angel had been stuck up. Sting was a fish boy then, and whatever I was supposed to be guarding Rogue from had gotten close to him too. I resolved to stick to Rogue like glue from that point on.

"Gray, could you tell what language the writing on the tablet was?" Levy asked. "Freed and I are already working on transcribing that amulet Sting found. We may as well take a look at this while we're at it."

Gray's jaw set. "Absolutely not."

Sting disagreed. "The trap should already have been sprung and… served its purpose." He wasn't hesitating at the thought of my coma like Gray was. Sting had just needed to take a deep breath while talking. "The writing on the tablet I saw looked the same… as what was on my amulet."

"Then seeing a larger sample of such writing should speed up our translation," Freed decided.

"Oye. She's not going anywhere that could take out Salamander," Gajeel declared.

"You can't stop me!"

"Wanna bet."

"Listen to Gajeel," Gray ordered.

"There's no harm in at least making sure the trap hasn't reset," Bickslow argued.

"I can check," I offered, for all the good it would do.

"I can check."

Everyone fell silent and looked at Lucy, who'd spoken even more firmly than Gray. "I can check without entering the room. Unless it… needs to detect a life inside to set off…" she glanced at me, but quickly turned to look back at the crowd. "But even for that I could have Virgo make sure she could escape and send her in. I still have a map of the ruins. I can find the room."

"You never saw the room," Gray reminded her.

"I remember the route."

"I can find it," Lucy said. "Trust me. I won't take any unnecessary risks."

She held Gray's gaze for a whole minute before he gave up and went back to resting his chin on the bar counter.

"I can find it," Lucy declared one final time. If anyone was going to argue against her they didn't have a chance. As a spirit I have any sense of touch, so I didn't notice anything amiss until Cana spoke up.

"Ah! It's getting hot in here…"

"Now that you mention it…" Erza turned to look at Gray, who had gone from fully clothed to nude while Cana was speaking. Her eyes narrowed into her scary-about-to-beat-you-up look, but then she looked away and requiped into a swimsuit.

Feeling hot wasn't something I got anyway, but I looked around for other signs. Lucy was staring enviously at Erza, Cana was loosening her bra… um… I missed a few others, Elfman was taking his jacked off. The first reaction that got a tremendous amount of attention was-

"Sting?"

Rogue does this thing where most of the time he sounds so under control that you wonder if he even has feelings, so everyone looked up when he sounded concerned. Sting, who'd already been breathing heavily, was unconscious, cheeks bright red and sweat dripping down his skin. Rogue shook him a few times then looked up helplessly at Mira. She quickly grabbed a cup full of ice and brought it over to help get down Sting's throat.

He was a new, annoying member of the guild, but he was still part of Fairy Tail. I went over to Sting to see if I could identify what was wrong.

He was hot. Not hot enough for people to go into a complete panic the way they did if I got a fever and they didn't know my body temperature was always higher than most people's. Mira and Rogue were just saying they needed to make sure that didn't happen. But Sting was hot. Even though I didn't feel the heat everyone else complained about or the cup of ice being held right where my stomach was, I felt warmth from Sting.

Rogue and Mira never _said_ Sting was in trouble, but the more people complained about the heat, which was apparently getting worse, the harder those two tried to keep Sting cool. He did feel a bit warmer than when I'd come over… but… not enough so for me to think it was that serious.

Evergreen suggested that his cold was all that was making the heat worse for him, and if he hadn't had a temperature before they should just take him home and put him in bed. Rogue nodded, muttering something about a cold bath, and picked Sting back up.

When someone opened the front door to the guild a wave of heat rolled in, warping the view of anything behind it. Someone shut the door while Rogue settled to setting Sting on the table.

Mira went to get more ice, and was coming back with another cup when the heat coming off of Sting just stopped. Judging by the way everyone paused and looked around, they'd stopped feeling it too. Erza even smacked Gray and made him redress.

"I'll take Sting…" Rogue muttered, picking the blond up again.

"I was moving our perishable supplies to the old guild hall yesterday. I need to make sure the heat didn't destroy any of them. Do you mind if I walk with you until our paths split?" Mira asked.

Rogue shrugged.

"I'd like to go as well," Erza announced. "The master was having a Lacryima-vision installed in the old hall while we moved everything. I'd like to see if we're going to get any further heat flashes."

Although if the heat had been caused by Sting then it wasn't too likely to have had any effect outside the guild.


	12. Sting has doomed us all

I woke up to the sound of girls giggling, which made me remember that awful day at the lake where I found the stupid amulet, which made me realize how badly I wanted to be swimming in the lake just then even if it couldn't hold a candle to the ocean, which made me miss the ocean so bad it physically hurt.

And why was I waking up to girls giggling? Better yet, why was I waking up on Rogue's back?

"Did I fall asleep?"

"You passed out," Rogue told me.

"I did?" Yay. I vaguely remembered felling really lightheaded all of a sudden after things go hot, so that must have been when it happened. "How long was I out?"

"Only a quarter of an hour," I heard Mira say. "We were worried. Your temperature shot way up. You should get some rest. Rogue's taking you home."

"And you're all helping?" Seriously. What were they doing?

"We wanted to check to see if there was any news about the heat wave," Levy explained. "But Mira's right. You just need rest."

"I'm fine." As fine as I could be after all that time in the mountains. That stupid heat that had settled into my stomach had flared up back at the guild, but it wasn't bothering me just then.

"You should still lie down," Lucy told me.

"Then I can lie down in your dusty old guildhall."

"You shouldn't be lying in dust while your lungs are troubling you," Rogue insisted.

"Fro thinks Sting is being stupid."

"Great. I'm fine. Let me walk on my own." When Rogue ignored me I tried yanking at his hair-which is a simple matter of trying to run your fingers through that face obscuring mess-at which point he decided that I was not only well enough to walk for myself but also to be dropped on my butt.

"Way to be mature."

"You should try it too sometime."

The girls laughed again.

I grumbled a bit and let Levy and Juvia pull me back onto my feet, and followed everyone from a distance. I didn't need to listen to the girls' chatter, even if I could hear it from a few blocks back, and I did need to stop every couple… yards, to catch my breath.

What matters is that they were still trying to figure out how to get the news on the Lacryma-vision when I caught up. Sabertooth had a similar model, but watching shows was more Rogue's thing, and he'd gone home after dumping me. I had a vague idea of how it worked though, and we eventually got it set up.

The guild hall wasn't _really_ dusty. Someone had come in and cleaned it while Rogue and I were moving, and before the guild master had even repurchased the building. I sat down on one of the nice, new, large tables that wouldn't fit in that windmill but matched the old building perfectly. The girls joined me and watched the anchorman report on a strange reddish mist that had come down from the mountains and was systematically passing over the continent, occasionally lingering and creating irregular heating patterns wherever it went. Several crops had been destroys. Cases of heat stroke were rampant in areas directly below where the mist had been.

I noticed myself running a hand across my stomach and stopped making the gesture. The mist had passed by just two kilometers from Magnolia, and judging by the path being shown on the screen it would make another pass about eleven kilometers in the other direction. Hopefully it wouldn't make me overheat again when it came back.

"Well, it looks like the council is arranging with officials in Seven and Bosco to try and stop whatever this is. We should just wait it out. The next heat wave should be minor," Mira decided. "Sting, you're the one who passed out-" thanks for reminding me "-will you be okay?"

"I think so."

That seemed to be a satisfactory answer. Mira went back to focusing on the news, waiting to see how forming a team went and whether or not they could stop the mist. That must sound so overboard, but I suppose rampant heat stroke is a problem for any country, and unless they worked together there was a risk of people pointing fingers at who was responsible.

Not that many people would know to point a finger at me.

One of the terrible things about news being available all day long is that after a while things kept getting repeated. The update on where the mist was traveling was nice, but other than that it was nothing but filler theories to fill up broadcasting time. I lingered and watched mostly to avoid having to get up and walk again and make it painfully obvious to myself how serious a weakness my reliance on water was. The girls, I'd assume, discussed their own theories. I tuned them out so I wouldn't act suspicious.

It was Juvia's squeal that drew my attention back to them and, following her gaze, to the TV.

The words flashed across the screen: _Breaking news. Inherents overthrow local government in Pengrande countryside_. It took me a moment to register that. Inherents.

Magic is kind of like singing. Almost anyone 'can' use magic, but most are so poor at it that they shouldn't try to make a career of it, and genetics influenced your level of skill. And just like some people are born with a voice better suited for blues or rock or whatever awful crap Rogue plays in his room, most wizards are inclined towards certain types of magic-particularly when it's ability type magic. Mira's family has a powerful tendency towards Takeover magic. Lucy likely only became a Celestial wizard because Mommy did. There were a lot of predictors, but no guarantee, and lots of training still needed.

Not with Inherents. If they had a parent with a certain power then you'd know they'd have that power too. They'd use it from birth, learning to control it in infancy the same way a baby would learn to control their arm motions. They were natural one trick ponies. No one would care much about that-except Inherents liked to claim that wizards stole magic from them and get superior over it.

And now they were doing something about it? The news was reporting similar uprisings in other countries, some being orchestrated by humanoids instead. Siren had completely halted traffic in the harbors around Ca Elm.

Looked like I'd never be vacationing there.

After that my focus was glued to the screen, looking for more tidbits of information on the uprisings. We sat through an hour and a half of reporting, which became panicked after the anchorman learned that the southern tip of Fiore had been taken over by Harpies and a band of Inherents, before they finally caught a group trying to destroy a duke's home.

The group was still in questioning when I finally decided that I couldn't put off swimming any longer. I may have also not wanted to keep listening.

-o-

"You look better."

"I feel a lot better," I assured Rogue.

We fell into silence, which had never happened when Lector was around. The two of us would work one another up, maybe acknowledging the odd comment from Frosch while Rogue listened in the background.

Lector wasn't around anymore. No one I was familiar with in Sabertooth was there anymore. It was just Rogue and Frosch. Frosch would be fine, but Rogue… would he get a pass for having been raised by a dragon?

"Are you concerned for me?" Rogue asked. He looked unsettled himself, though he'd had a few weeks to get used to the silence so I was likely the only one bothered by that. He almost looked like he'd seen the same image on humanoids ripping him apart that I had. That's what they'd been doing by the time I stopped listening to the news. Ripping humans apart.

"Did anyone tell you about the news?"

"I'm sure you will."

I did, describing how the Inherents and humanoids had been claiming that the thing I'd unleashed was a 'true' demon. Not one of Zeref's knockoffs. A real beast straight out of hell and seeking to purge the earth. How they were calling their savior and that the time of humans, or people who weren't born special, was over. Within the year, they'd claimed, the land would be nothing but 'their kind.'

As a half-breed I'd get a pass. I'd have a world where no one could shoot a harpoon at me for swimming in my siren form. I could race in the river running through Magnolia without any worries about getting caught. I didn't mention that, but like always Rogue caught on.

"You aren't worried for yourself."

"I'm worried for you."

"I'll be fine," he assured me, pausing after he did so and almost letting a horrified expression stick on his face before the impassive mask was back up.

"As long as you think so. You're the one I wouldn't want to lose."

"And Fairy Tail?"

"The only one I gave a damn about was Natsu, and he's good as gone as it is." I regretted it the instant the words left my mouth, trying not to shrink under Rogue's fierce glare.

Silence again.

Silence.

God, I needed Lector just then.

"Rogue's scarring Fro…" a baby voice murmured.

Rogue's glare instantly melted into a mixture of apology and concern, and he bent over and coaxed Frosch towards his spot on the couch, lifting the remaining exceed onto his lap and whispering more apologies to the dumb thing than he'd say words to me in a day.

I bit my lip and looked away, trying not to think about how I _still_ didn't have Lector to share that kind of private bond with. As a child I'd laughed at a story about how ecstatic Gajeel had been to find a partner. He'd been the only one of three slayers not to have someone. Now I was the only of five. He'd had no idea what he was missing. I couldn't stop missing him.

Lector was gone. Rogue was more concerned with Frosch, and I could probably argue his safety anyway. I let that hell beast loose on the world. Why not reap the rewards?


	13. Juvia doesn't have time to worry

"Now repeat after me. _I_ think that we should go out together."

"I-I-I th-think w-we should… g-g-g-go out together!"

Yes! Ju… I-I mean, I said it!

I beamed up at Gray, who nodded approvingly at my mastery of first person speech. I've gotten better, but I do slip when I get flustered. Ah- but now tht I'd told Gray how I felt, surely-

"If you ask the guy you like that way, he'll be a lot more likely to say yes."

Sometimes… I suspect Gray tries not to notice my feelings. Okay! Plan B!

"Gray? I know you've been feeling down lately. As a thank you for the lesson, maybe I could take you out somewhere. Do you like shaved ice?" I'd scoped out every vendor in town selling frozen treats just for this.

Gray had been smiling at me for the lesson, but shut down at the suggestion that he leave the guild. "Um… maybe later."

Mayday! Mayday! "Ah. It's… still hot out. Juvi-I could bring you something. I-ice cream or-"

"Vanilla."

"Eh?"

"I like vanilla. If it's not too much trouble," Gray murmured, looking away from me and towards the bar. Mira looked at him then winked at me. Was she planning something? Were they already together? I wouldn't stand for this!

"Gray, I'll get your ice cream right away."

"You don't need to ru-"

I rushed to the nearest ice cream place and back. It wasn't the best, but I didn't want the ice cream to melt even the slightest bit before it touched Gray's tongue.

Something Gray's tongue was about to touch was in my hand. Checking to make sure no one was looking, I gave the vanilla cone a small lick. With indirect kiss preparations complete, I entered the guild and made my way to Gray-sama's table. He mumbled a thank you and took the ice cream and brushed my hand as he did and licked it right where I had. Aaaah. So this is what they call 'bliss'.

"You alright?" Gray asked me. "You're making a weird face."

"Juvia's better than fine."

" _I'm_ better than… ah, forget it."

He took another lick, and another. Gray's face when he eats ice cream is so wonderful. I could have gone on watching him forever if Gajeel's girl hadn't interrupted everyone.

"I've got it!"

"You mean we," Freed told her, grinning despite the protest.

"Got what?" Some asked. Lucy? In my concern over Mira I'd taken my eye off of her. Without Natsu to distract her she may become my rival for Gray again.

"The runes from that old amulet Sting found," Levy explained. "It was just one word, but it was harder to get correct since there wasn't as much to base the translation on. A couple symbols didn't match perfectly and could have been translated a few different ways, but this was the only one that made much sense. _Grisia_."

"That makes _no_ sense," Gajeel told her.

"I recognized it," Lucy insisted. "Grisia is a fire demon from old myths. According to legend he was a lord demon, but fought so violently with his fellow lords that hell itself exiled them, and they came to earth to continue their battle. It was all heaven could do to seal them away."

"Sting probably found some old token belonging to a worshiper," Gray guessed.

Levy nodded. "The lord demons had a lot of followers, mostly among humanoids who they more closely resembled, and among Inherents, who were supposed to have been persecuted at the time of the lord demon war for their magic. The legends go back farther than wizardy does. According to old tales the lord demons would have normal human couples offered up to them annually. Since they weren't creatures meant for earth, they could only maintain a partial presence on their own, and would possess the male offering to anchor themselves in our plane."

"What did they do with the female?" Cana goaded, already knowing.

"They… reproduced…" Levy blushed.

My mother had taught me about the lord storm demon as a little girl, raising him up as most people would God. I knew the lord demons had children, and didn't show as much interest in the information as my guild mates. What I had noticed was what Levy said just beforehand. _Normal_ humans. It could be innocent. It could have been intentional. I thought I was pretty normal, but for her to make that distinction between people who were and weren't born with a magic ability gave me chills. They… they knew that's what an ameonna was, didn't they? I'd stopped creating rain when I came to the guild, but they knew I had inherent magic, right?

"The storm demon produces children who can sense and effect the weather," I said. "What do Grisia's children do?"

Levy looked to Lucy, who sighed and told me, "Grisia is the lord fire demon. People descended from him would have an affinity for fire magic, or for fire in general, and could also incinerate things with a touch when angered. I know a few others. The 'king' demon Lucia, an angel who was corrupted and cast from heaven, could pass on a 6th sense for chaotic thoughts and actions. His children would have visions of violent activities that had happened in a place they passed by, or see people's darkest thoughts. The stories say they were all driven to suicide by their visions. None lived to be fourteen. The lord stone demon's children could swim through sand and rock like it was water. The lord leaf demon's children could heal any physical wounds or diseases that they were struck with by forcing the injuries onto another person. They could do it any time so long as they weren't dead If Natsu were a half demon, the descendent of a lord demon, he could put someone else into his coma for him."

The silence that was mandatory when mentioning Natsu ensued. I wasn't the only one who looked to Gray, who was very interested in his feet.

After a moment Levy cleared her throat and continued the lesson. "Back before the angel created a seal to imprison all of the rejects from hell, their children lived in luxury and peril. The lord demon's followers would treat their lord's children like royalty, but the other lord demons would treat children like bull's-eyes. At this point, few believe that certain types of Inherents either are descended from a lord demon, but it's a popular theory that their powers were attached to the demon myth long ago."

"Not that that has anything to do with anything," Gajeel grumbled.

I didn't know he was in the guild, so I was surprised with Rogue spoke up. "Aside from the ethereal monster creating abnormal heat wherever it goes and the Inherents and humanoids claiming that their savior has come to rid them of humans? You're absolutely right. It's completely irrelevant."


	14. The Spell's desires and actions do not align

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the stuff with the demons and the siren was bs that I made up, but everything up with The Spell is based on things that happen in the actual manga. But even with there being a reason tying into canon that he has it, his power is a bit... ahem... Well, it's not like it actually gives him that big a leg up on anyone once he starts interacting with the other characters.

They'd come at me out of nowhere. The first one grabbed my arm, and I was dimly aware of the fact that he was trying to burn it. The next lunged with a sword, piercing through my stomach in a way I shouldn't have felt, but I was low on energy and I _did_ feel the drain on my body as it sealed up the wound.

I flickered.

Both men leapt back, looking shocked. Like they'd never seen somebody fade before. I'd been trying to find food and shelter since my escape, but I wasn't having much luck. One family had spared me a small meal, but sent me on my way, and I wanted as much distance between me and the lab as possible, so I hadn't let myself stop to sleep anywhere that wasn't perfect.

Maybe a nap would have helped in the event of something like this.

A strange creature joined them as they lunged at me again, moving in a manner similar to how the humans did, but more snakelike. That is… I've never seen a snake, but the researchers had described the kinds of motions it made as snakelike. The thing clawed at me, tearing apart my clothes, which I'd been given at the lab and couldn't mend. That would be annoying.

As suddenly as their attack had begun it stopped, all three looking at each other before the one with the tail and the funny movements came forward. "You are not human?"

I bristled, wanting to blast the scaly bastard into oblivion for daring to remind me, but he wasn't human either. It probably wasn't meant as an insult. "No."

One of the humans swore. "We attacked one of us."

"I don't know any Inherents who can heal like that."

"He could be one of Elmairy's kids."

"But we don't have any injuries."

Inherents? Elmairy? I wracked my brain for any significance to those words and, finding none, even tried to tap into _his_ knowledge. Nothing.

Well, if they'd only attacked in error then it was worth a shot. "Can you help me? I've been looking for a place to stay."

"And look at his eyes! How could you think a human would… I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

"I need somewhere to stay. I… if you people don't mean any harm to inhuman-"

"Non-humans. Inhuman sounds negative, and the humans are the bad ones," the 'non-human' one said.

"But you two are human, aren't you?"

"We're Inherents. We're superior to humans."

"…Oh." Like there was any difference to be seen, but the researchers had said my vision was off. I must have been missing something obvious. "Well… I'm running from some humans. They're going to lock me up if they catch me. No one's given me much help and-"

"What are you?" one of the Inherents asked. "A humanoid?"

"I'm a spell." _The_ Spell, they'd called me. I had to be _in_ human if I wasn't good enough for a name.

"A… spell?"

"Yes. Magic. Magic that thinks for itself. They want to study me to recreate something. Some… something about… seraphs?" No… that wasn't quite right…

"You mean Zeref?"

I nodded.

"A living spell…" The three exchanged looks.

"So… he's not human."

"We can consider him a humanoid," the scaly one decided. "You're one of us then? If humans locked you up for testing then you must hate them too."

"I…" Just the researches. The researchers and _that_ bastard, but everyone else… no. They'd screamed when they saw me, but those men had said it. My eyes were off. Inhuman. Negative. "I want to _be_ human." If I were, those men couldn't have held me, and that woman wouldn't have run, and I wouldn't be worried that I may flicker out of existence if I didn't rest soon.

They all exchanged looks again before the scaly one shooed them the other two away, telling me, "We'll consider you an Inherent in that case. Now, we have an offer for you."

-o-

Genesis, the group called themselves. A group that would bring rise to a new era, where the Inherents and humanoids who were superior to regular humans, who had been treated as suspect for their natural talents or inferior for their race, would rule the land. If I were human, the scaly one had told me, then they didn't know if I'd pass on whatever magic I had, but I'd been born with power I knew how to use, and that was good enough for them. I would have rather been a regular human, but what I _wanted_ didn't seem to have a huge impact on their opinion of me.

"Or lords, the demons, have been sealed away for a long time. But one has recently returned to us and is seeking his host. Once we've released them all they will help us to cast down the humans. If you are among us then not only will you be spared, but the lord I was raised to follow, Lesus, will surely make you into a human."

"He can do that?"

"Demon magic is far beyond what any of us could ever do. If you work with us, he'll grant your wish."

If I worked well, a voice in my head told me. If I just cheered them on the I wouldn't have made myself stand out enough to make something so much better than humans think I was worthy. These men were against humans but… but the Inherents were just humans who were full of themselves, and they'd extended a hand to me when other humans had run away or struck me. So if I helped the better ones, it couldn't be _too_ awful if the worse ones were overthrown by a demon, right? If that's what it took to obtain true freedom…

"What do you need me to do?"

The scaly man grinned. "Good. The Rune Knights have an outpost here, a small one that is usually overcrowded with guards even though no one knows why the position is important anymore. Our priests tell us that the demon lord Elmairy is sealed somewhere in this area. We need to clear them out before we can begin searching."

-o-

"He's on our side," the scaly man announced as he led me back to his friends, who had been joined by another twenty or so men now. "We've cut a deal. I'll give the details later."

"Good to meet you, magic boy," one of the men said. "The name's Gost. I'm in charge of this operation."

He held out a hand for me to shake. I reached out, but hesitated, and he saw why.

"Those look like some nasty… are they blisters? So you bleed blue, huh? Must be the type of magic that nutcase cast you with."

"You know my caster?"

The man snickered. "Even living under a rock, you ought to know how recognizable he is-you've got his face too." He clasped my hand, making me wince at the pressure on my already agitated skin. "Alright. You're new, so we won't expect much from you today. We're going to wipe this outpost off the map. Just hang back and watch. Don't get involved unless you see someone who needs help."

That didn't sound hard at all. I nodded and followed the group. Trying hard to keep track of each of them as they told me their names. The one with scales was easy to remember, but hard to pronounce. Keeping track of the women was also easy, because there were only three females there. The men were much harder. Some I could tell apart by height or hair color, but my magic sight can obscure my vision of regular objects, and all of these men had enough magic to make their features indistinguishable. If they'd all bothered to learn different types of magic then it would be fine, but it looked like they'd all been picked for the job based on one ability they had.

I just focused on keeping track of which one was probably Gost and nodded politely when the humans talked to me about how great it would be when all the humans were gone.

At some point they stopped for lunch. A few of the humans shared bits of their meals with me, but the ones who were friendliest were the scaly man-a drake, he'd called himself-and an dwarf girl. From a bit of conversation I gathered that the problem was that I looked _too_ human.

The dwarf went on for some time telling me about how she was shorter and thicker than human women, so no one looked at her as one, but her features were human enough that she wasn't treated like an animal. Not by the enlightened and oh so special Inherents, at least. I was getting sick of that word really fast. The drake seemed to think the same reasoning applied to him, and they both agreed that the humans were less comfortable with me because they were more used to seeing all sorts of odd features. The humans mostly lived with other humans, so they'd see me as a human with freakish eyes.

After lunch I put more effort into trying to keep track of who was who. With a full stomach and an hours rest I had a bit more energy to put into the task.

They made it easier for me by actually using their magic when we reached the outpost that they wanted gone. Seeing their magic in use I could identify subtle differences, which would be easier for me to pick up on when they stopped fighting.

That would happen in prison, maybe. Most of them used earth based magic, and they were doing pretty well until a large, thickly built man with long hair came out and countered them. He was an earth magic user to, I hung back and watched him turn all the stone they tried to use into soft, useless dirt. The battle did a 180 there, with no one able to combat the man's magic. They were losing.

They were getting captured.

This was a government owned outpost. If they captured me, would they send me back to Shadow Alp's government owned lab?

Not happening.

I didn't have huge energy reserves left, but I did have _that_. I tapped into it, careful not to take so much magic that I would unravel before I could recover, and fired at the outpost, aiming the magic in a series small beams that I could twist around allies while striking enemies and the building, targeting most of the magic towards the man who had turned the battle in the enemy's favor.

I didn't pass out from the effort, but my vision blurred, obscuring everything but my magic sight as chaos broke out. By the time my regular vision returned both sides had recovered, and were looking evenly matched. The men who'd agreed to help make me human had lost a number of people before I'd taken out the main problem.

The dwarf was hovering over me, so I must have fallen to my knees. She kept asking if I was alright, "Because you keep fading in an out."

"I'm fine," exhausted, but fine. I didn't like taping into the magic that held me together, no more than I'd assume a regular human liked using their blood as a weapon, but it was the strongest trick I had.

"You can't do that again, can you?"

Not without killing myself. I shook my head.

"Will you be alright if I leave you for a minute?"

I scanned the crowd. No signs of an anti-mage. I nodded.

"Okay. Just stay there. Don't strain yourself." And she left me to help with the fight.

-o-

I must have dozed off. I closed my eyes while I was leaning against a tree outside the building and woke up in a bunk inside of it.

"After your stunt, we're not sure this place is really to safe to be in, but the roof in this room looked sturdy, and we're still setting up camp, so we can't have you lying around randomly outside. You can stay in Olrin's tent once it's been pitched," someone, I thought it was Gost, told me.

"We won?"

"And with no small help from you. You, magic boy, might now be the best asset the Genesis group has." He grinned at me, wide and bright like no one else ever had. Why bother grinning like that at a dumb spell, after all. "Just think. With an Etherion user in our midst we almost don't need the demons help to take over."


	15. Lucy flees

The Inherents in the Genesis group liked to target wizard, since we "stole their magic" or something to that effect. Rune Knights were spread out and assigned to different guilds, which had been ordered to restrict jobs until it was safe for magic users to be out in small numbers again. If they were paying my rent I wouldn't have had a problem with this, but I was forced to use the time that didn't wasn't spent on guild jobs running errands around town to scrape together the rest of my monthly payment.

Rogue had been even less pleased. His and Sting's rent is higher than mine, and because Sting had gotten sick they weren't able to finish their job before the lockdown. The master had talked their landlord into not evicting them until after they'd had a chance to really work, but unless the Genesis issue was dealt with soon they-and I, and half the mages in Fiore-would be in some serious financial trouble.

Levy had been the most distressed by the news, since it meant she had to wait to go and look at the ruins.

I'd finished helping deliver mail for the day, so I headed to the guild hall, the old guild hall, which everyone had been able to commit time to moving into after being forbidden from taking jobs. Despite having been assigned more Rune Knights than any other guild, the place was no less rowdy than normal. Half the knights had given up on trying to keep us on a leash and joined the insanity. Four were involved in the bar brawl going on when I walked in.

"They should have assigned you guys to a guild that needs more support," I told the guard captain.

He moved as if to snap at me, but saw my sympathetic expression and eased back. "This place is nuts."

"It's fun that way, don't you think?"

He hmphed.

"Fro likes it too," a little baby voice cheered.

A fabric covered paw fell on my leg and clung to it. I smiled down at Frosch, who is the most adorable thing I've seen sans Plue, and looked around for her partner. "Where's Rogue?"

"Sting threw a fit, so Rogue has to calm him down instead of keeping Fro company," Frosch reported. "Can Lucy play cards with Fro?"

Sure. I had nothing better to be doing. I scooped Frosch up and waved to the guard captain before finding a table for me and Frosch to play at. The little cat produced a deck from her suit and began to shuffle the cards like a casino dealer.

"Do you do this often?"

Frosch nodded, smiling up at me with such an innocent look on her face as she held out five cards for me.

She was so cute. I'd have to go easy on her.

-o-

After losing twelve rounds in a row, after deciding to play seriously, after having lost the first six rounds and been told (innocently) that I was bad at card games, I decided Frosch wasn't _that_ cute and suggested that she play with Happy, who was finally starting to leave Natsu's side and mingle with the guild again. Some nights he'd even come home with me, which seemed to have been what Natsu had wanted if he wasn't around anymore, but it usually upset the poor guy because Natsu wasn't around to set up some sort of surprise in my bedroom.

Frosch was either glad to get a potentially better opponent, or assumed I was just entrusting her with the important task of cheering up one of the people still incapacitated by the shock of Natsu's coma. Gray had gotten the most focus in the immediate aftermath, but it had been a few weeks and everyone but Juvia had given up on trying to get him to do something until he felt like it on his own. She seemed to be succeeding. With nothing better to do I hovered near by to step in if she started coming on to strong.

She didn't, but after a few minutes I heard Happy complain that Frosch must be using some trick to beat him, so I went to look for Rogue. He had to be _somewhere_ in the guild. I doubted Frosch would stray far from him.

He and Sting were at the pool, one testing it out and the other regarding it with disdain. Odd. I'd have guessed Sting would be all over the pool. At least the sight of Rogue in swim trunks was a treat, and seeing Sting squirm with discomfort was even better. That's what he got for only starting to wear clothes that completely covered his body once the heat got bad. Eavesdropping on some of the methods Rogue used to try and coax Sting in was amusing as well. Sting was intent on staying out of "that chemical crap" though so Rogue gave up soon enough and decided to enjoy the water himself, even if his dumb blond friend was sweating buckets and still acting stubborn about it.

It's not stereotyping. It is a fact that Sting is both dumb and blond.

My Natsu hallucination, which may or may not have been a hallucination in truth, was sitting in front of Sting making silly faces at him. I'd only seen Natsu around Rogue recently, and he was always doing something absurd so I couldn't help but notice him. He noticed me looking his way and smiled slightly before we both resumed our act of not noticing one another.

Once Rogue gave up on getting Sting into the water they returned to what I could only assume they'd been discussing before the pool opened, which seemed to be a lecture from Rogue, the near mute, reserved one, about Sting, the open, chatty one, not trying hard enough to fit in. I didn't need to try and make sense of that, or spy on their private conversations, so I stepped out then and waved.

"Rogue! Hey. I need your help with Frosch."

He looked mildly surprised. "Is she bothering you?"

"No. A little. Maybe. She's going around looking for people to play with her, but when it comes to card games I guess she-"

"I see." Rogue glanced over at Sting, surveying him before he waded over to the edge of the pool and climbed out. I'm not one to go for the stoic type, but watching the sun catch on those wet abs… was dull. That's what I was thinking. What a dull guy. Ha ha… ha… mm.

Shoulda brought a camera…

"You want your shirt?" Sting asked.

"Too hot for that." That must be easier to say when you already had the shirt off. Rogue went to get himself a towel from the other end of the pool but froze half way there.

"Something wrong?" Sting called.

"Inside," Rogue ordered both of us, turning and glaring. "Now."

"You're not the boss of-"

"Now!"

I bit back the rest of my retort and retreated into the building. Sting and Rogue, still wet, followed me in, but the Natsu hallucination didn't walk through the wall as I'd seen it do several other times when Rogue entered a room. If Rogue shirtless and wet didn't get the eye of every girl in the guild then him going around and barricading the doors and windows at least got every guy watching him.

"He getting paranoid?" Gajeel asked.

"Apparently," Sting grumbled.

"Rogue!" The master called. "You're going to trap everyone inside if you keep-"

An alarm sounded. One of the Rune Knights who'd been posted on the roof rushed downstairs.

"Genesis!" He called. "A large number of men from the Genesis group are in the area! They're a kilometer out and headed this… oh. You already saw them." He stared sheepishly at Rogue for a moment then went back up to his post.

Everyone exchanged looks and got up to help Rogue, who couldn't have seen them, because the fence blocked the view from the pool in _any_ direction well before half a kilometer. I looked for Gajeel, but he was already clinging to the ceiling, taking Erza's directions to secure windows up there. Jet had been caught in another guild's lockdown and hadn't been able to make it back to Magnolia in the past week, so Laky was running to the girls dorm to grab Wendy. Sting and Rogue were right there, but asking Rogue was out of the question, and if he was hiding anything Sting wouldn't be the one to tell on him.

They hadn't braced anything against the door leading out to the pool yet…

Natsu was still waiting outside when I checked, scowling in the direction Rogue had been facing when he'd frozen. On instinct I almost ignored him to focus on the pool instead. It was somehow noticeably hotter than when Rogue had been swimming only a minute ago, and the water looked inviting, but now was hardly the time.

"Can you sense something?" I asked him.

He looked at me, then everything else in the general direction I was looking.

"Can you sense something, Natsu?" I repeated.

He pointed to himself. I nodded.

"We're talking again?"

"Until I have a better option, yes."

"Okay. But make it quick. I'm not supposed to let living people know what's going on and that angel will get really mad at me for contacting someone from the guild."

" _I_ contacted _you_ , so it's not a problem."

He seemed satisfied with this excuse. "I don't know what Rogue noticed."

"The Genesis group is coming here. Natsu, how far away could you smell something from?"

He shrugged. "If it really reeks, or it was sprayed on I can notice it from a long way off. There's this one nasty flower I followed the scent of for over a kilometer before. I wouldn't be able to smell a group of people, if you think that's how he noticed them. If they were all loud I might hear them, but I don't hear them now. Rogue notices things, though. He was cooking last night and Sting was sneaking up behind him to dump water on Frosch, and even though he was being perfectly silence Rogue still spun around and threw a ladle at him just before he could do it."

"Rogue cooks?"

"Yeah. The stuff Sting makes looks nasty."

"You've been to there house?"

"I'm supposed to keep an eye on Rogue. Sometimes I wave to you from their window, but you don't notice me."

I had thought I'd seen Natsu waving from the vacant home next to mine. Apparently it wasn't vacant anymore.

"Why were you wondering?" Natsu asked.

"I thought… maybe… we don't know them that well, and I feel bad for saying this but… I thought he might be an Inherent."

"Part of Genesis?"

"Yeah. He could have sensed the attack-or been told it was coming and known how to handle it. I don't want to think that a guild member might be a mole, but if they recognize him as one of their own it could give us a lot of trouble. They've been going around saying wizards oppressed all the humanoids and are trying to do the same to Inherents so we won't have to compete with their magic, and if they see one surrounded by a bunch of powerful wizards they might interpret it that way."

"I don't know if there's anything special about him. That jerk only told me to look after him because of something involving our dads."

"That jerk being the angel you mentioned?"

Natsu's jaw dropped. "Crap! I… I didn't say anything about an angel."

"Yes you did." I wasn't ruling out the possibility that I was crazy, but I'd seen spirits before. So Natsu was on a mission from heaven, huh? He wouldn't ever be waking up then but… it seemed like he'd found a nice afterlife for himself.

"Lucy?" I flinched and turned to see a near naked Gray staring at me. "Is someone else here?"

"Tell him to stop moping over me," Natsu instructed.

"No. That's contacting guild members," I reminded him.

"You're… contacting guild members? Gray asked.

"Oh! Um… I was… yeah. I've been trying to practice Warren's telepathy, but I'm not having much luck. Ahahaha!"

He scowled at my forced laugh, but didn't press the issue. "Come back inside. These nuts might not offer much in the way of variety, but most of them are skilled enough to make up for that. If you force us to face them we'll get in trouble with the council for taking the exact risks we're on lockdown to avoid."

"Right. Right. Coming."

This time when Gray and I came in and helped barricade the door, Natsu walked through the wall after us.

I smiled at him, but didn't speak again. I couldn't make myself look crazy in front of the whole guild, and now that I knew he could get in trouble with some higher powers I didn't want to risk starting casual chats whenever the urge struck anyway.

Natsu got a fun new 'life' doing heavenly work. I wouldn't distract him from it. I could wait until it was my time.

I could.

Wendy and a few other stragglers had been fetched by that point. All the doors were sealed off. Everyone settled into the seats while the roof guard came down to report the old windmill where Fairy Tail had worked from the past seven years was being burned down by a fire half demon.

Soon they were in town, and Warren started gathering reports from civilians who'd overheard discussion while they were fleeing. They were there on a mission from their lord, Grisia. A holy mission which their lord had even come along for.

Happy and Lily flew up to check through on of the less boarded windows. Yes, there was a red mist drifting across town.

"It's okay," I assured everyone. "According to legend a lord demon's powers are weak when they don't have an earthly form. If it's still mist then we can handle it."

That brought a roar of cheers from everyone but the two new dragon slayers, one of which had quickly gained a reputation for being among the louder guild members. The absence of Sting's voice didn't go unnoticed.

He looked worse than he had in the first demon induced heat wave, sweating so hard you'd think he'd been in a downpour he was so drenched. Nab handed him a glass of ice water, which he downed without hesitation. It was miserably hot, sure. Cana had actually taken a page out of Gray's book and wore only her panties, and everyone else was too busy fanning or double checking barricades to care. Sting seemed too sensitive to the heat, though.

Rogue tried to pat Sting's shoulder, and almost completely covered his disgust as the sweat from Sting's shirt dripped off of his hand. He glanced over at the pool door, but Sting hadn't wanted to get in the pool earlier either. He went and fetched a whole tray of ice water instead.

Natsu, in the meantime, held a hand centimeters from Sting's stomach and scowled.

"Are you alright? You look hot," I told Sting.

"Just fine," He grunted. "You don't look so bad yourself."

Idiot.

"Ask him if his stomach is bothering him," Natsu told me.

Well… he'd get in trouble… but it wasn't really passing on a message, was it? That was probably the issue. Just for getting information… "Is your stomach bothering you?"

Sting growled and looked away, but after a moment admitted, "It feels like I drank magma."

"Sting was especially effected by the heat last time as well," Erza recalled. "I assumed that was due to your illness, but this seems to be a serious problem. Wendy, come see if Sting is alright."

Wendy stepped forward, but jumped back when Sting snarled, "No!" His arms flew down to wrap protectively around his stomach. Everyone took a step back. The only one undaunted by Sting's snarl was Rogue, who Sting murmured thanks to when his friend returned with more cold water for him to guzzle down.

Everyone stopped watching Sting struggle to keep his body at a non-lethal temperature when someone banged on the door. The master and Freed had set up runes that would keep Inherents out, leaving a small space for people like Juvia to slip through, so for now banging was all we had to worry about, but if the lord demon caught up with his group… where was he?

"Open the door," someone ordered.

"You're kidding," was the guard captain's response.

"Open the door," the voice repeated, firm and clear even through all the wood that had been pushed up against the door. "If the guild cooperates, they will be spared for the time being."

Natsu started furiously shouting the problems with that offer, making me flinch and cover my ears. Gray shot me another odd look, but like everyone else he was more interested in what they meant. "Cooperate how?" someone, a few people, called out.

"Give us the marked one," the voice instructed. "For the time being he's all we need."

"Like hell!" Natsu hissed.

Above everyone else's protests, Erza declared, "We don't abandon our guild mates to save ourselves a fight. Go away and we won't have to hurt you." A roar of agreement rolled through the guild.

**You are in there.**

The noise inside the guild stopped completely, everyone looking around in concern. The new speaker's voice, which seemed to radiate heat with each syllable, had sent a chill down all of our spines.

"Grisia…" Someone, possibly me, whimpered.

**You are in there. I** _**feel** _ **it. This place pulses with our power. The white ones have inscribed walls, but let you inside. Bring the marked one to me.**

White ones? Everyone looked around, mixed looks of confusion and fear spreading across the guild.

"We didn't set up anything to keep a demon out," Lisanna muttered finally. Her and her siblings were the only 'white ones' around, but I couldn't imagine that a lord demon had been talking about them.

**Bring the blond boy and I shall spare the rest of your friends.**

Coming from the demon it sounded suprisingly convincing. There were only two blond boys, so that made it easy to narrow down who the 'marked one' was. All eyes went to Sting, whose face was still flushed from the heat that he felt much more severely than the rest of us.

Rogue clutched Sting's shoulders protectively, not fazed by their dampness this time, and growled at the door. "Fuck off."

**You speak to me, half-baked brat?**

"We're not giving you Sting," Rogue declared with a firmness that no one else had been able to muster since Grisia had first spoken. Everyone looked how I felt, stunned that Rogue could even speak so strongly, much less argue, when faced with the demon. Only Natsu was actually snapped out of the stupor that Grisia's voice had put him in.

"Sting's part of the guild-even if he's a pain in the ass. He stays with Fairy Tail," Natsu said to no one who would be able to hear him. Or so I though.

**No. He is to come with me.**

"No. He stays," Natsu insisted.

Grisia laughed, each echoing boom making me think I'd faint from heat stroke. I could only imagine how miserable listening to that monster was for Sting. **You argue with me?**

He heard Natsu.

"Who's he speaking too?" Gray asked me.

"Na…not know. I do not know."

He scowled. "Lucy, whatever you're up to now isn't-"

"The time to force it out of her," the guard captain interrupted, taking command of the conversation while only whispering. "Gray, you can make ice, and Lucy, you can escape with your tunneling spirit, right? You two help sneak Sting out of here while whatever is keeping Grisia occupied is still going on. The last thing we need is your legends about lord demons growing stronger in a host body being proven true." He pressed a sheet of paper into my hand. "I'll let the council know you left with my permission."

Hearing this, Mira leaned over and added, "Take… take Lisanna too." So that if we get killed by a lord demon today at least my sister won't die again, but that was too depressing to say, so neither of us forced her to.

Lisanna, when she heard the plan, grabbed Frosch and Erza as well. Rogue had to take care of Sting, she'd argued, and Gray had to do the same while being gloomier than normal. That left me and her to defend against all of Genesis if there was an attack. We didn't complain to have her strength added to the group. Nor did we complain when she re-quiped into a rain poncho and offered to carry Sting.

Natsu would complain about motion sickness riding on my back, so I wasn't too surprised when Sting hurled after Erza had taken only ten steps. The room wasn't hot enough to boil anything, but the vomit bubbled and immediately filled the hall with a sickly smell all the same. Rogue scowled and pressed one last glass of water to Sting's lips while Gray pried away the pool door barricade. While Natsu and Grisia argued we slipped out the back.

"Rogue leads," I insisted, keeping my voice low now that we were outdoors. If he had somehow felt Genesis coming then he could somehow lead us around them while we made our escape.

We looped around town, sometimes weaving between houses to dodge Genesis members who'd hung behind. We kept a mostly steady pace. The faster we could get out of town the faster Sting would stop feeling the effects of Grisia's presence. As it was, whatever else the mark did to him it had to be keeping him alive at unnatural body temperatures too. We slowed occasionally so Gray could create more ice to try and ease Sting's discomfort with. The first time he fussed a bit over his bad arm before settling for using Ice Make magic with only one hand. Once he adjusted to that we barely had to slow at all when he worked his magic.

We were almost to the train station when Rogue reported that no one who meant to do us harm was nearby. With one less thing to worry about, I remembered the paper in my hand. It was crumpled and damp with sweat, but still readable. I held it out for everyone to see.

"Mission: Siren Extermination," Erza read aloud. "This one must have arrived after the lockdown."

And after humanoids started acting up. The siren were drowning anyone who tried to sail from Fiore's eastern shore. Local government was paying 12,000J per hide. It wasn't a guild job so much as a bounty notice, which was probably a loophole the guard captain had taken when he grabbed the paper to give to me.

"I wouldn't mind earning some rent money while we hide from them."

"The water would be a good way to avoid a fire demon," Lisanna added.

"And the beach is always nice," Erza put in.

"Fro thinks so too."

"That sounds like something Natsu would have focused on," Gray muttered, looking back in the direction of the guild and realizing he'd been forced to quit his semi-vigil.

Sting just moaned. We looked to Rogue to see if he had his own opinion, or would speak for his incapacitated friend.

"Sting likes the ocean. Once he's better he should be excited for a job like that."


	16. Sting is a siren

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song lyrics ripped from Rune Factory: Frontier

Forget idolizing Natsu. Gray was a god. A god who could make ice whenever that awful heat that _still_ hadn't left me after I'd let the demon loose became too much for me to tolerate.

"His temperature's back down to double digits," Mira's sister reported. "I think we're far enough from Grisia that you should be able to cool him down all the way, now."

"About time. I'm almost out of magic."

I sighed in relief when I felt cool ice press down on me once more. That was a _huge_ help. Even that the act of sighing made me cough didn't detract from the relief the cold brought.

"Sting?" Rogue asked.

"I feel better," I assured them. After a slight pause I added, "Thanks."

Rogue nodded his approval. I didn't want another lecture about not trying to act friendly with our new guild mates. I preferred Saber's method of just praising people for a job well done and going back to minding your own business, but Rogue had wanted Fairy Tail, and had even played the Lector card and argued that not a soul in the guild would have even thought of doing something so horrible to him.

I didn't feel better for long. It had taken me some time to notice we were on a train, but now that I could focus on something other than how miserably hot I felt I was keenly aware of all the rocking and bumping the wooden torture device on wheels was doing.

"It's too bad we don't have Wendy," Lucy said at some point between the sweet relief that was known as the different stops on the train route. "Na… um… Natsu developed an immunity to it, but she has a spell to help ease motion sickness. You two look like you could benefit from it. Especially you."

I had to lift my head from the open window to see that she was actually looking at Rogue as she said that. He didn't look any worse than I must have looked, but he's the one who usually acts composed, so by comparison he probably did look much worse.

"This damn heat isn't making my stomach feel any better…" I muttered.

"You're still warm?" Gray asked. I felt him gathering up magic for another spell.

"Don't bother. It-urp-it's not going to go away completely." Oh… I was going to be sick… "Ah… why couldn't that thing decide to possess one of its descendants instead? Then it-ugh-gets to have whatever weird powers it passes on to its demon spawn, and some demon blooded nut would probably be happy for the honor."

Rogue groaned and looked over blankly at me, which I took as an agreement-and also motion sickness.

"If the old legends about Grisia and the other lord demons are true, then it's possible that he didn't know where any of his descendants were when he decided he wanted your body," Lucy suggested. "It's been a long time since they would have had a chance to have half demon offspring. There are probably plenty of half demons wandering around who are unaccounted for, or believe that they're normal Inherents, or even just normal wizards with a strong affinity for a certain type of magic. Maybe you _are_ one of Grisia's descendants, and he _did_ pick you based off of that."

No. Because no siren in their right mind would pick a mate or even a fling who's specialty was fire magic. Fire and water don't mix. And I'd been picked as host because I was dumb enough to try and grab that amulet back up. I rubbed my stomach, absentmindedly thinking about the heat resting in it, and in the process accidentally irritated it to the point of having to stick my head out the window to vomit.

That would have been the end of it, but it started me on a coughing fit. With the strict rules brought down on guild work I'd had plenty of time to swim in the lake without worrying about having to work, but little time away from Rogue. I still had more than a day, but lake water… lake water just didn't cut it. I needed to find a way to get back to the ocean, at this point it seemed like I may need to seriously consider an extended stay at sea.

"Trouble with your breathing again?" Rogue asked, visibly struggling to ignore his own discomfort to see if my 'cold' from our mountain trip had returned.

"Asthma," I mumbled, unable to think of anything else to excuse it while devoting most of my focus on not vomiting all over everyone.

"I… oh." Rogue isn't chatty, but it was rare to see him truly speechless. _You should have told me sooner_ was written all over his face. Maybe he wouldn't drag me into a desert if I told him the truth after all.

Well, I didn't want to draw attention to my tendency to suffocate on air, so I picked a topic that was sure to hold attention. "Ugh… seems like if the lord demons were gone long enough half the country could be descended from them."

"Inherents don't like to have children with regular people, or even other types of Inherents if possible" Rogue told me. "The half demons have likely been interbreeding since the lord demons were sealed away. There are probably less than a quarter as many as there once were."

"If you say so."

"There'd be no children from the king of the demons, at least," Lisanna pointed out. "You and Levy said about as much. They all went mad young."

Lucy nodded-I assume. I liked my place with my head out the window. Fresh air made my motion sickness a little more tolerable. "According to the legend," she said, "all of Lucia's children would see visions of chaotic thoughts of those around them, or deeds that had happened in places where they stood. There powers would compel them to seek out more visions, and eventually they would be driven mad by them. The children who didn't take their own lives had to be killed, because they began killing in order to feel more chaotic energy."

"All before they were fourteen," Lisanna added, "which is a tragedy, but it means that we at least don't have to worry about one lord demon's descendants."

-o-

When we finally got off the train I was rewarded for my suffering with the most alluring scent imaginable.

"We're at the ocean?"

Rogue smiled at me. Hiding all of my trips to the sea hadn't been possible, so of course he knew I liked going to the beach. What he didn't know was just how much the water really meant to me. Just how wonderful it would be to feel it in my gills after a month without. A hum started to build in my throat just thinking of how great it would be and Erza, distracted by the noise, almost didn't get her luggage off before the train doors shut. It looked like, somehow, everyone had a bag. I made a note to ask later about their stopping to pick up personal things while I had a temperature almost double what a human should be able to survive.

First things first, though. Top priority would be slipping away from them. "Can we afford to stay here? No one's been working. If it would save on hotel costs I can-"

"We're here on an approved job, so we'll be able to afford enough room for all of us," Erza assured me. Looked like I couldn't go off to a secluded little place on my own after all.

"That's good. What is it then? My last job was a flop. I haven't worked since June."

"I won't let this job won't be a flop as well, which means you'll be staying in the hotel," Erza told me. "If that lich job made your asthma act up, then I don't want to put you in harm's way."

Annoying… but thoughtful. And if they were all off working then I could-

"I'll stay too," Lisanna offered. "You have an inhaler, right Sting?" A _what_? "If he has too severe of an attack he may need someone else to help him. And the same goes for if Grisia tracks us here. Last time he got too close while Sting was short on breath he passed out."

Erza nodded. "We'll leave him to you then."

I looked to Rogue for help. He shrugged, not seeing the issue. He couldn't see the issue? Rogue was a master of figuring out what the problem was! I wanted to go to the water! Not be baby sat by some bleach haired bitc-

"Sting, be nice to Lisanna while we're gone," Rogue ordered before following Erza, Gray, and Lucy down the shore. Frosch followed after cheering about how they were going to catch a fish thiiiiiiiis big for dinner.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Lisanna said once they were gone.

"Aren't you lucky," I grumbled, heading towards the water after them. She grabbed my shirt and yanked me back.

"We need to get everyone's things to a hotel."

Of course we did. My skin itched to feel the salty water after a whole month without, so of course we had to carry everyone's damn stuff to some dumpy hotel before I could even swim in human form.

Okay, so to be fair the hotel wasn't dumpy, but it was cheaper than anything a Sabertooth wizard would have tolerated. I wasn't a Sabertooth wizard though, that had been a mistake. And as much as I hated being babied over fake asthma and having to act like I cared about people I'd only known a few weeks, and as jealous as I got watching Rogue and Frosch, being in Fairy Tail meant that mistake wouldn't harm Frosch too, because Rogue and Frosch deserved that even less than Lector and I had. Even if they had the nerve to act all doting right in front of me.

And to give Lisanna credit, she was in a rush to get out of the hotel too. We determined a girls' room and a guys' room with no arguement, dumped bags haphazardly on beds, changed into swim gear, and headed out for the beach.

"You're going to have an awful tan if you wear a t-shirt," Lisanna warned me.

I coughed. "That only matters in places where people will see it."

She looked at my stomach, which I had a habit of keeping visible when there weren't weird runes all over it. I didn't quite know how to respond to that, so I didn't, setting out for the water instead.

"You also aren't supposed to swim in a shirt!" She called after me.

"I won't." I wouldn't be wearing stupid swim trunks either, but I had to own a pair or else people would know I was doing something weird whenever I went to swim. It was nice of whoever to have grabbed them for me.

Lisanna, kind, overbearing soul that she was, followed me to the water's edge. She wouldn't let me off on my own. In theory, if I had to, I could sneak out at night. Realistically, spending the whole afternoon on land when the sea was right there, washing up against my toes, wasn't _really_ an option.

I couldn't see any of the other guild members around, and with a demon and a crazy wizard hunting group on the lose tourism wasn't booming. The beach wasn't so crowded that I couldn't try _something_.

At first I wasn't confident enough of what volume I needed to use, starting off so soft I hardly heard it myself and slowly getting louder. Once Lisanna showed signs that she could hear my humming I opened my mouth and started singing a soft, wordless song. Her eyelids drooped, irises glowing faintly as my enchantment took hold of her.

I took a step into the water.

Lisanna stood and stared.

" _Pray to heaven with a song_ …" I shifted to a song with words. One I wouldn't mind repeating whenever I reached the end. This time when I stepped deeper into the water she followed, fully under the spell of my voice. There were days I wished that I'd inherited water magic instead, that I could sing in the shower without stepping out to see Rogue and our exceed standing there with no idea why they'd gotten up to listen, but every now and then my enchantment did come in handy.

Humming along to my song, Lisanna followed me as I waded deeper into the water, heading south as I went so we'd get away from the public beach. If I could find a spot where it was too rocky or there was too much beach grass for people to lay out towels…

I'd looped through my song at least twenty times, struggling to get in enough air to keep going, before I found a good place to change forms. Clothes came off right under Lisanna's blank stare. She couldn't register anything else as long as I kept singing. She'd just smile at my pleasant little song and follow me to the ocean floor if I lead her there, never even changing expressions as she drowned. That's why I preferred sneaking off to enchanting people. The grin got creepy after a while.

She almost regained her senses as I changed forms. The shift in breathing methods made my voice crack, and I had to dunk my head underwater to keep singing.

Without noticing it I'd strengthened my voice, and had to quiet back down in case there was anyone nearby. There were no distinguishing features in the area where I'd shifted forms, no way for me to find my way back easily if I left anything there, so I made use of the smiling mindless doll and pulled my shirt and swim trunks over Lisanna's bikini before drifting into the deeper water.

" _Pray to heaven with a song, as the winds caress me…"_

I had to be careful not to go too deep, or to stay under too long. Human bodies couldn't handle as much water pressure as a siren could, nor could they breathe underwater. To keep her from needing to dive down after me to follow my voice, I hovered close enough to the surface that my dorsal fin stuck out of the water, going deeper only briefly for the sake of feeling myself moving through the water the way my body was designed to.

"… _Send the prayer up to the light, so that it might help me see. Searching through my memories_ …"

I've never understood the appeal of chocolate, but if I had to pick an example, I'd ask someone who liked the stuff what it was like to go a whole month with only cocoa beans, then getting to taste the rich candy again. Swimming in genuine, honest to goodness salt water felt amazing. I popped up for a brief moment to let Lisanna breath-I was using the lines of the song to track how often I should do that-then I dove back under. That time I started practicing backwards flips.

"… _Memories, my memories for you… for you. I have come this far having lost every hope, hope of finding you. But I swear not matter what I've had to face_ …"

Mid loop I spotted an underwater cave. How… curious. This was siren territory, but I rarely saw other siren. I wondered if one lived there. Surely it would have noticed my song, if that were the case, and come to see who was so close to their home. I swam a little closer just in case I wasn't loud enough for them.

"… _You've never left my heart. There are sweet memories, they live all around us. How can you, not believe in our love? My whole heart belongs to you. My life your love leads_ …"

I was searching through the cave, light in hand, looking for any signs of habitation, when something began to bother me. What, though? My clothes were secured and I was in the ocean, feeling better than I had in a whole month. Going so long without, I almost wondered if it _would_ be better for me to give up living on land, but even if he had Frosch, Rouge would miss me, right? So what was I missing? Something… something important…

"… _I've always stood next to you, in your time of need. Embraced by the warmth of your gentle gaze, I've given you my love. I look for you now in my memories. Heart never mending. Love never ending. Pray to heaven with our song_."

I hovered there a moment, trying to figure out what it was. Could something be off with my singing? Since no one can ever tell me what they thought of it, I don't know how good my singing voice is, but it had always been sufficient for enchanting people.

Then I realized I was so busy trying to think of what I'd forgotten that I'd forgotten to repeat the song after finishing it. No doubt Lisanna had seen me in my siren form. I spun to try and explain it to her, and remembered what was so important.

Humans can't breathe underwater.

Shit.

But at least she hadn't seen me.

I rushed Lisanna's body back up to the surface, feeling for signs of life as I went. There was still a heartbeat. That was something.

Fortunately, wandering into that cave meant we were close to land. I dragged her and myself up onto the sand, shifting enough so that I could breathe on land, but not wasting the time it would take to change completely back. If she died because I'd gotten too caught up with swimming, if I'd just had the sense to keep surfacing every couple lines rather than give in to curiosity and keep singing… keep her trapped under my spell…

CPR isn't something I have much experience with. I opted out of the mouth to mouth part-I'd rather live with the guild of her death than kiss her-and hurried to work with chest compressions. What good did breathing into flooded lungs do anyway? After what felt like an hour, but would have killed her if it had really been that long, she coughed, vomiting up sea water all over me. Good thing there was sea water to wash that off with.

I waited a minute, realizing that if she opened her eyes she'd either see my naked body over her own weak form, or learn my secret. Considering I'd nearly killed her, it seemed to me that she'd earned that second one.

When she didn't wake up I removed my clothes from her, washed the vomit off of myself and my shirt as best I could, and changed back into human form. The beach grass pricked my feet as I carried her back to the public beach, but it would be unfair for me to complain, and I didn't trust myself to take her back through the water.

-o-

"Siren only enchant men. Have you ever heard a news report of a woman sailor being enchanted?"

I'd never heard of a woman sailor in the news period. Erza had been outside hunting people who might be my half siblings or cousins or even one of my biological parents all afternoon, though, so of course she was the expert.

"Really! I was standing by the shore and I heard someone singing to me, then the next thing I knew Sting was carrying me back. He said I'd gone out into the water with a blank look on my face and I nearly died. I've been coughing up water all evening."

The only one who hadn't known we were hunting siren was me. I hadn't found out I was expected to harpoon a potential relative until I'd asked Lisanna why, when I described her behavior, her first guess had been that a siren had enchanted her.

I'd rarely even met other siren, and they weren't too interested in a half-breed. I wouldn't call them 'my kind' no matter how enticing the idea of living in the ocean could be. Even if I loved swimming in siren form, I was more in tune with my human half, if for no reason other than my upbringing. It shouldn't have bothered me that siren were being hunted. Of course there was always encouragement to kill the monsters who… who drowned people, and of course Genesis was making everyone paranoid when it came to humanoids. Or course they wanted the siren population cut down. It shouldn't bother me at all that Fairy Tail was helping get rid of monsters.

It should have… it _did_ bother me that Rogue could go out and kill something that was a part of me, a part of me I couldn't help but embrace when I came in contact with water.

"Sting, did you see any other siren?" Lucy asked.

"No."

"That's alright. I think Lisanna was telling the truth," she decided. "Thank you for swimming out to save her. With your asthma acting up, that was a huge risk."

"Sting hasn't been coughing since we got back," Erza pointed out. I faked a cough for her, but she ignored it and carried on. "Sting, you mentioned earlier that Grisia ought to possess a half demon. What if he was planning to do just that? What if he picked you because you're the child of the demon who could force ailments onto others."

"I… what…?"

"Siren can't enchant women. You gave your breathing problems to Lisanna," Erza stated. I bristled at the accusation, but in the end it was my fault Lisanna was still coughing.

When I said nothing, Rogue spoke up for me. "We're new, but that's no reason to be mistrustful. If we were dangerous to our guild mates, even in Sabertooth, we'd have been kicked out much sooner. Sting wouldn't force an ailment onto an ally."

"He could be a half demon without knowing it."

"I'm perfectly human," I snapped.

Rogue-the-living-lie-detector-Cheney coughed.


	17. Rogue can see the truth

It didn't take long after Erza started pressuring him for Sting to squeeze out of the hotel lobby. I waited a minute more to verify that she was the only one who truly held any suspicion before following his example and claiming I wanted to get to bed.

I'd only taken two steps outside of the lobby when I felt _it_ again and spun around, shadows engulfing my hands and ready to swallow up whoever was sneaking up on me.

No one.

I stood there feeling foolish-and grateful that I was alone in the hall. Completely alone. Not even Frosch was there. No one could be have seen me act strange and no one could have been trying to get up behind me. For the past week I'd had a creeping feeling that there was always someone lingering around me. It unnerved me more that my senses were leading me astray than it would have had I caught a stalker.

There was no one five feet away, staring at me from the spot where my sense screamed that they were and eyes insisted they weren't. Just to assure myself of that I reached out and felt around at the area in question before going into our hotel room.

Sting had dumped Gray's things on one king sized bed, and left mine beside the bed that he was dripping water onto. As long as he stayed on his side then fine. I didn't care. It beat sharing a bed with a nudist.

"I'm not a half demon," Sting told me. "I'm not."

As if it was the worst thing in the world. Maybe it was just Erza's grilling, but I couldn't find the words to reassure him. He stared up at me from the bed, hoping I'd tell him I knew he wasn't some horrible demon spawned monster, and I just stared down, speechless.

"…Thanks for not pressing me about this," he muttered.

"It would be pointless. I'd have noticed if you were half anything."

That made him laugh, which was good, but made the hair on my neck rise all the same. I was sensing things that weren't there at all and couldn't tell what Sting was hiding when he went to the lake. _Could_ he get something that big by me? I got the sense that he'd lied to Erza but… it was too vague, especially when my senses were misleading me. If he'd said it with malice that might have made it more obvious, but in self-defense… I had a harder time picking out innocent lies.

"Thanks, Rogue. I'm not… I'm really not up for an interrogation right now."

"Then you wouldn't want me asking how Lisanna really drowned."

"It's… what she said. A siren led her out into the water and when I saw her deep under and not breathing I pulled her out." He was telling the truth.

_So why does it still feel off?_

There was part of it that he wasn't telling me. Sting wasn't going to trust me with this-whatever this was and that… that wasn't fine. I wasn't fine with that at all. No way did he have as good a reason as me to hold his tongue. No one was going around implying he was a monster. I wasn't going around saying anything about monsters. So why couldn't he trust me?

"Rogue? You okay?"

"Mm." I took a deep breath and changed the subject. "Sting… what are those markings on your stomach?"

I'd said nothing about them because I didn't see Sting's stomach covering outfits that often. No one else had commented on the faint red marks and I'd assumed they were part of the clothes that I'd missed earlier. Now, in the dimly lit room, they glowed through his shirt. Sometimes I forget that a dragon slayers eyes are a bit sharper than most people's.

"Mark…?" Sting glanced down at his stomach, then yelped and quickly covered the area with his arms. "That was just… I was… you didn't see… there… I…"

He wasn't keeping this one from me too. Placing a hand at his side for support, I leaned so far over our noses almost touched and glared until he not only moved his arms away but lifted the shirt for me to get a better look. Old, familiar looking runes wrapped around his navel, glowing like charcoal in a dying fire. I reached out and touched them, and instantly felt a shudder run through me. Delicious dark energy teased my fingertips and gears in the back of my mind were already turning trying to figure out a way to excuse feeling his stomach again during the night.

"Rogue? You're blushing."

More importantly than getting that wonderful feeling again was keeping a lid on my urges. I removed my hand without letting any of my reluctance show on my face. "That's the amulet." It had to be. I wasn't certain that the marking were the same, but I recognized that amazing feeling from before. I thought Sting had lost it in the fight with the lich when I couldn't sense it any longer.

"Y-yeah," Sting admitted. "It… just… slipped inside me when I fell into the lake."

I had a brief moment to register that he was omitting details before I saw the memory of it myself. The stone he had seen. The amulet, glowing, settling against it. A pale, scaled hand reaching for it, flinching back as hot metal began to flow beneath its fingernails. The stone cracking. Red mist seeping out. Fear. Confusion. Panic.

I gasped as I came out of the vision. Sting, thank God, was still averting his gaze and trying to explain himself. Trying to explain it without admitting that he'd started this whole mess chasing after a dumb trinket.

"So the amulet went inside you when the seal broke." He nodded, so he must have mentioned that the seal was involved when I was still under. "And the markings appeared at the same time?"

"I only noticed them later."

Possibly around the time he stole my clothes. It explained his sudden disinterest in flaunting his abs.

"They hurt," he said suddenly. "When Grisia gets close they start to burn. I've felt this weird heat in my stomach since they appeared and the burning feeling makes the heat worse and worse. This is the worst."

"Actually," I corrected, "This is good news."

"I have weird marking on my body after absorbing some demon artifact, and now the demon is chasing me. I think you don't know what 'good' means."

"The demon was already chasing you," I dismissed. "If he wants you specifically because you have the amulet buried inside of you-"

"Then we just need to get it out!" the idiot realized.

He may have gone on longer, but the door opened up just then and he hastily pulled his shirt back down. Gray and Frosch walked in, the former only wearing boxers, and looked over at us.

"If we're interrupting anything…" Gray mumbled, blushing.

Oops. I never got out of Sting's personal space after he confessed to having the markings. I straightened back up and shook my head. "Come in." And don't you dare mention this to Gajeel, because a certain dumb blond already has him thinking I'm gay.

"Did Fro miss something fun?"

Sting shook his head "Mommy and Daddy just wanted some alone-ow!"

While he nursed the bruise I made right in the middle of the markings on his stomach, I went to wash off. Sting was just fine smelling like seaweed, but I'd rather smell like the fake citrus in the cheap shampoo sampler the hotel left out.

They were all in bed when I came out. Frosch had decided she'd get more space sleeping with Gray, which I couldn't fault her for, and the two of them were snoring. I got under the sheets expecting the same of Sting, but he shifted and looked at me as I settle in.

"Is something keeping you up?" I asked.

He nodded, hesitating for a moment before saying, "This hunting job…"

"You can come along tomorrow, if your asthma isn't going to be a problem. You sound a lot better now." He really did. After all the health scares he'd been giving me recently, I'd sleep much better having heard him breathing easily.

"Yeah… what… what do you think of it?"

"It's a job. They're drowning people. We're being paid to stop them."

His feelings of anxiety shrank. That was fine. Anxiety wasn't much for me to work with anyway. "Okay. Good night, Rogue."


	18. Gray falls prey to a siren

Since we had an even six plus Frosch, we split into a girls' team and a guys' team for hunting down siren. When it had been suggested we divide the team that way Erza put up a fight, insisting me, Rogue, and Sting were doomed to drown if we did that. Lisanna had argued about her own incident, and while they were caught up in their debate over whether or not she'd really had a siren encounter, Sting had shoved me into a boat and he and Rogue had pushed off. He hadn't gotten within twenty feet of Erza since she'd accused him last night, and she'd been wanting him in a small boat with her.

First problem with this?

"Would you two _get in the boat_?"

"No. Did Rogue really ride in that wooden torture device yesterday?"

"Erza had to make Rogue ride with everyone," Frosch explained.

Sting turned to Rogue and said more sincerely than I'd ever heard him be before, "I am so sorry."

Rogue shrugged, which threw of his rhythm a bit and made him slip under for a second. Frosch had pulled Rogue out of the water a few times when he got too tired of treading or swimming alongside the boat, but Sting was holding up just fine.

"Aren't either of you worried about being dragged down by siren?"

Sting shook his head. Rogue did show a flicker of concern, but didn't voice it. He even acted defensive when Sting reached out and grabbed his arm protectively. Those two were just impossible.

Sighing, I leaned back against the edge of the boat and tried to drown out the headache they were giving me by focusing on the water. Surely I'd see _something_ move. Like a shark fin poking out of the water, or a tail splashing. Or did siren even come that close to the surface? They had to, to pull people under.

There certainly weren't any nearby, that was for sure.

"See anything?" Gray asked. "Not that I expect either of you to see squat hiding behind the boat."

Sting grumbled something and the two split up to take either end, which helped in terms of searching, but left another issue.

"You two do realize you're in the perfect position to be dragged under, right?"

"I'm drown proof," Sting reported.

Rogue tried holding onto the edge of the boat, but winced and started to turn green when he did. A moment later he was back to treading water. Apparently the extra assurance not to drown wasn't worth getting motion sickness.

Or maybe it was. After a few seconds Rogue scowled down at the water and climbed onto the boat, groaning as he lowered himself into one of the seats. He kept watching his side though, and more intently than before. I tried to follow his gaze, but still just saw blue.

"I something down there?"

"I think so."

I looked to Sting to see if he was bracing himself, or at least paying attention. He wasn't. Looked like it would be up to me to save him when a siren pulled him under. With a sigh I swung overboard and took Rogue's spot in the water.

Almost instantly I heard it. It only sounded like a faint tune, barely reaching my ears when the waves brushed against them, but when I heard the sound it was too perfect to not belong to a siren. I'd never heard a siren sing before, but when the sheriff explained the basics of siren hunting he'd gone into great detail about how their voices would catch people unaware. Tough break for the siren. I was aware of it. I took deep breath and dove underwater, planning to catch the dumb beast.

Juvia would kill the siren if she ever found out I'd seen it. Even covered in pale blue scales I couldn't help but notice her otherwise bare breasts. All together she was a very lovely fish, with sparkling blue eyes and ebony hair. If Lucy had seen her she could have come up with a much more poetic description, because a poet was what the thing deserved. The woman began singing a little louder, putting more magic into her voice and making it take more effort on my part to keep my mind clear. I drew a little nearer to get in better range for a spell.

With agility that I should have realized a finned creature would have in water, she bolted behind me and wrapped her arms under mine, pulling me just deep enough underwater that I wouldn't be able to reach the surface by kicking and trashing. When I attempted magic she reached out and swatted my broken hand, breaking what focus I could manage while trying not to panic over being held against my will underwater by a creature that excelled at drowning people.

"You come here to kill us mercilessly," the siren whispered in my ear. "Let me return the favor."

I was going to drown. She wasn't going to let me stay under an enchantment, blissfully unaware of what was going on. I was going to drown fully conscious.

At least I had boxers this time.

I tried thrashing, but she grabbed my arm and twisted so hard I thought she'd cause the bone to shatter again. I was willing to go the rest of my life with a bad arm if it meant living longer than a few more minutes, but by that point water was entering my lungs, and it was getting harder to fight against her.

Getting desperate, I looked up at the boat to see if either of the idiot dragon slayers might have noticed my plight. Sting had been on the other side of the boat. He might not have noticed me going under, and he certainly wasn't looking down. Rogue was though, he was looking right at me and doing nothing. With a few feet of water between us it was hard to tell, but he looked pleased for someone with crippling motion sickness sitting in a boat.

Maybe he'd heard the siren singing first, and had somehow been manipulated into putting himself out of commission? But he'd seemed normal earlier. I kicked, trying to get a foot up above water or brush against Sting and alert him to my situation. I didn't accomplish either, but I did strike the boat. My leg went numb for a moment from the impact, but even panicking I noticed the boat rock much harder than it had been in the weak waves. I aimed for it again, kicking the side as many times as I could until-

Flipping the boat launched Rogue right into Sting, which would have been satisfying at any other point when I didn't desperately need one of them to rescue me. Once he'd recovered from the start Rogue returned to watching me with a vague, glassy eyes look. It was Sting who swam after me when the siren cursed and dragged me deeper.

My vision began to go black. I wrote the sight of Sting growing unnaturally pale as he swam down as a figment of my imagination just before passing out.

-o-

"I was the one who pulled him up. _You_ kiss him."

"CPR is not kissing. Besides-"

"If it's not kissing then there's no reason to object to doing it. Come on, one of us needs to get him breathing."

I groaned.

"He's waking up! Kiss him quick!"

"Sting, he can clearly breath," Rogue said.

"If either of you two put your-" I coughed "-lips on mine, I will freeze you and send you out drifting at sea."That probably counted as being in a vehicle too.

"How nice of you," Sting said as I forced my eyes open. "I guess I get no gratitude for saving your life?"

"I'm grateful," I assured him, "though it would have been nice if you were actually checking the water for siren too."

Sting waited until I had pushed myself up and worked out where they'd put me before saying, "Well sorry for spacing out, but it also would have been nice if you hadn't decided to dive underwater when you heard a siren singing. That's what we call stupid."

What I'd call stupid was breaking apart the boat we were renting and using the base boards as a raft, which must have been some over the top way of avoiding actually getting into the boat to keep an eye on me while I was unconscious. If I'd learned one thing from Natsu, though, it was that arguing against motion sickness was a losing battle, so I just focused on what Sting had said. "I didn't-"

"Don't deny it! Rogue saw you… going…" Sting paused. "Rogue saw you."

Rogue shrank back at the baffled look Sting gave him, looking away and muttering something that sounded vaguely like an apology.

"Let it drop. The siren probably enchanted him too."

"It doesn't work like that. A siren's singing draws people closer to them, or at least completely distracts them. Rogue _saw_ you. Rogue, why didn't you say something? Erza's already going to want my hide for being present at the second siren attack. Just think of what she'd do if Gray had really died!"

Great to know where his priorities were. As for where his knowledge of siren songs came from, I didn't think to ask. I was scowling at Rogue now too, who was trying his best to be microscopic as he muttered, "sorry for…" For… what?

For being too chicken to face a fish lady. I didn't care if that was the real reason or not. That's what I was telling everyone when we got back to the hotel.

-o-

Being the self-serving jerk he was, Sting seemed pleased with Erza's lectures to Rogue on needing to have the courage to save his friends. If she was spending more time scolding his friend, then she was spending less time being suspicious of him. It wasn't until Rouge had sat and taken Erza's scolding for over half an hour that Sting said, "Rogue never said anything about having been too scared."

"Then what did he say?" Erza demanded.

"That he was sorry for…" She glared at me for trailing off, but that was what Rogue had said. "Rogue, if you weren't scared that what _were_ you apologizing for."

"I… just…" he looked over at Sting. "Before I forget, you need to show them that mark."

"That has nothing to do with-"

"It's why we're here, so it's completely relevant," Rogue insisted, eyes narrowing.

Sting must have figured he owed Rogue for taking the heat, because he grumbled and lifted his shirt. Everyone in the room, possibly everyone in Fiore, had seen his stomach before, but I didn't remember him having any glowing runes on his body.

"Grisia," Lucy read slowly. "It's the same as the amulet."

"It is the amulet," Sting explained. "It sort of… went inside me at the same time Grisia appeared, and I was focusing more on the demon and my… uh… asthma at the time so I wasn't thinking of it much," aside from thinking of how to hide it, clearly, "but Rogue pointed out that it's probably why Grisia wants _me_."

"We'll ask the master about extracting it once we return to the guild, then," Erza decided. "We managed to earn some funds today, so we can excuse returning soon."

The girls had managed to catch three siren, likely all at the hands of Titania. Us guys, on the other hand, had only gotten as close as to have me nearly drown. "I never want to go near the ocean again," I declared.

Erza nodded. "We'll clear out first thing in the morning. That will be good, right Sting?"

"Yeah… great."


	19. Natsu makes himself useful

Rogue was developing a habit of reaching out and waving his arm through my chest when no one else was watching. Seeing someone's arm pass through you looks a little weird, but Lucy had just smiled sympathetically when I asked her to make him stop it and suggested I stop spooking him. I wasn't even doing anything to disturb him.

But at least he wasn't going to try and grab for me in his sleep. Watching him in his sleep was also a little weird, but I was supposed to be watching for… something else. It would have been nice if that stupid Trisiel had _told_ me exactly what I needed to protect Rogue from. It couldn't be Grisia. The demon was after Sting, not Rogue.

So if that was the case then why was Rogue, who was perfectly safe, sleeping soundly while Sting, the real target, was sneaking out?

I couldn't question him, so I followed him down to the shore instead. When he glanced back I thought he might have sensed me the same way Rogue seemed to, but he looked right through me and scanned the beach before stripping down.

Never mind. Watching Rogue sleep wasn't all the bad. Seeing a naked guy isn't too odd for me after all those years with Gray, but seeing a naked guy who doesn't know I'm watching feels wrong. I tried to focus on Sting's feet while he stepped into the water.

Maybe it would be a good idea to check in on Rogue? Trisiel had already had to pull me back to heaven and send me down to the beach after I lost track of him at the guild. He'd let it slide since I'd helped Grisia's target escape, but he might not be as pleased if I lost Rogue watching Sting go skinny dipping.

I was making up my mind to go back when Sting's skin suddenly became paler. He was waste deep then, and he crouched in the water as a fin sprouted from his back. Under the water I saw his legs merge and thicken into a tail. By the time he stopped changing he was covered up to his neck in scales, with a small section of skin still showing on his arms. The rest of him went underwater as well, and I ran out after him to try and get a better look.

The other one who was at fault for the lord demon release was the fish boy. Trisiel had known about Sting.

I'd seen a siren nearly drown Gray earlier in the day. I'd given it my all trying to make Rogue notice, but he'd just sat there with that weird, content look on his face. Sting couldn't have been _that_ siren, but… Sting was a siren. Could siren change into humans? They must have been able to. I'd just watched Sting change back. Had he come out to drown people?

I didn't go out any further than he had when he showed his true self. Sting stayed in fairly shallow water, and every now and then I could see his fin or tail splash against the surface. So could the other people who started gathering on the beach, but I didn't care if a couple people knew there was a siren in the water.

"It's a shame the one Grisia marked is one of us," said one of the people in the crowd that had gathered.

The hair on my neck rose. Genesis had found us? I gave them a closer look over and in the center I could see Grisia. The others had described him as mist, but he looked pretty solid to me, all leathery and horned like some sort of devil monster out of a children's story.

If I could see him we were probably both spirits of some sort, so punching him would work just fine, but I grabbed the sword Trisiel had given me. An angel weapon might do more harm to a demon than regular magic. And he was trying to possess a guild mate. Even if Sting was the most obnoxious person ever and not even human, he hadn't drowned anyone that I knew of, and he'd saved Gray, so he had to be a good guy, and more importantly he was part of Fairy Tail now. No one harmed a guild mate if I could help it. Besides, Trisiel would have told me if one of the people near the guy I was guarding was a drowning monster. Siren or no, Sting was probably a good person-or at least not awful.

When he saw me heading towards him, Grisia hissed something at the Genesis members around him and they cleared a path, looking around like they were hoping to see me. Grisia waited until I was close enough that he could grab me, then he grabbed me.

**You caused me quite a bit of trouble with this one, boy.**

I growled, trying to twist my way out of his grasp. He held me tight against his chest, like some awkward embrace.

**Stop that. Be a more obedient child.**

I bit his arm.

Grisia growled and released me. For a moment I thought I'd managed to harm him, but he looked just fine-and also really annoyed. I grabbed the sword hilt and channeled my magic into it, preparing for his attack. I'd seen Erza use a sword enough times that I could probably do it myself.

Neither of us moved while he stared at the sword, eyebrow raised. I wasn't planning on giving any ground to this guy, but when he suddenly burst into laughter I flinched back in surprise. The people around us all took a step back too, especially the guy I accidentally brushed with the sword. Grisia didn't care that I sliced into one of his men's arms and left a blackened burn, though. He kept laughing, even when he _finally_ said something.

**The angels really sent** _**you** _ **to stop me? They think one of my own children has that power?**

Bad guys lie. I gritted my teeth and tried my hardest not to let what he'd said sink in. "The only parent I have is Igneel!"

He laughed harder. **No child. You are my descendant. There's no preventing me from seeing my own power in you. Now drop that weapon. You don't think you can harm the** _ **lord**_ **of fire with a weak flame like that, do you?**

"Weak?" No one called my fire weak! I doubled the energy I poured into it. Tripled. I'd show him. I poured everything I had into the blade, fingers starting to glow as I pulled on energy reserves I was barely even aware of.

A hilt buzzed suddenly, sending a painful jolt up my arms and forcing me to drop the weapon.

 **A good effort,** Grisia applauded when I tried to pick the blade back up, **but you can't put your demonic power into a holy weapon. Had you managed to add the fire you received from me to those pitiful things you 'father' taught you to use, the issue of using fire on** _ **me**_ **still remains.**

I was going to kill him.

As soon as I got the energy to charge my sword again.

**You really intend to defy me?**

"Go back to hell."

Grisia scowled and waved to his followers. **Send the necromancer to get the boy, and have the nymphs go catch that brat. He hasn't noticed us, so getting a hold of him shouldn't be hard.**

"We're _fresh water_ creatures!" a girl cried. "You want us going in… in… in that?"

With his attention off of me I bolted away from Grisia. If my fire wouldn't work on him then I needed to try something else. Why had Trisiel wanted _me_ to handle this? If he knew Sting was going to release a Grisia he had to have known a water mage would have been better. I had to warn Sting somehow. Could I wake Rogue? Probably not. He slept just fine around me. But then how did I keep Grisia from getting Sting?

When I hit the water I glanced over my shoulder. Three girls (nymphs?) were following after me, eyes on the splashes of water Sting was making.

They didn't want to go out in salt water. If I could get Sting to swim far enough out, would they give up? But what would make him… oh!

I raced to Sting's clothes, trying a few times to grab them before his shirt caught on my otherwise useless sword hilt. Getting all of his clothing looped around it took more time that I'd have liked, but once I'd managed I ran after Sting. The girls were standing at the edge of the water now, arguing over who had to get in first.

Sting was further out than he looked, and swimming while dragging clothes is hard. I looked back when I reached him, and saw the girls slowly wadding through ankle deep water.

If they were moving _that_ slowly, then Sting deserved to be possessed if he didn't notice them.

He didn't, but he did see the clothes I was carrying. He froze a second before reaching for them, and I backed away. He moved faster than I'd expected in water. All the fins and webbing must have helped. My only advantage was that I seemed to have better night vision than him. It took a bit of work to move the clothes in and out of his sight, and more than once I had to yank them out of his grasp, but once I had the technique down I was able to lead him further out to sea.

The nymph girls followed us long enough to get up to their waste in water, at which point they actually tried swimming. By then Sting and I were deep enough that a shark could swim under me and I wouldn't have noticed. A shark could probably also swim right through me and I wouldn't notice, but that wasn't the point, and no sharks came.

I didn't see what did come, but I saw a pale hand reach from the water and pull one of the girls down. Sting glanced back too when whatever it was, another siren if I had to guess, screeched into the ear of the second girl. She dropped like a rock when she heard the noise.

Sting grimaced and cursed under his breath before diving deeper into the water. Still no ability to sense the full threat, but he was at least trying to hide from someone who could see he was inhuman.

Wait…

Sting… couldn't sense the threat? Didn't that mark on his stomach heat him up whenever Grisia got close? Hadn't he said so himself? That would be something to ask Trisiel about. Along with why the heck did you send me to deal with a lord demon I can't harm who might also be my great grandpa? But asking him would come later. For now I just had to keep Grisia from getting his hands on Sting.

Because somehow it had missed Trisiel's notice that Sting was the one Grisia wanted, and slipped that bastard's mind to warn me how many people would be working for Grisia. It would have been nice to know that Grisia had nymphs-whatever those were-to chase Sting, and a necromancer to… uh… to… go after the boy? But no one else had come for Sting. Hadn't Grisia wanted the guy to… Shit.

To go after the other target.


	20. Natsu sees his charge possessed

I only waited long enough for the siren to take down the last girl before giving Sting his clothes back. He grabbed them and change back into a human from the waist up before putting his shirt on and bringing his head out of the water to gasp for air, then held on to his pants while he watched the siren swim by. In the dark it was hard to tell, but she looked fair haired, so she couldn't have been the one that tried to kill Gray. Not that I could do much if it were the evil siren. I was still out of magic, aside from the demon stuff the sword didn't want, and they moved too fast in the water for me to bash them with the hilt.

Sting didn't move as fast in the water with only a tail, but he was still able to leave me behind. Now that he could see the crowd clearly he swam around them, but I could only hope he made it back to hotel safely on his own. It looked like Grisia had left after sending his minions out, but he could be waiting in ambush.

I took a direct route, but sun was up by the time I got back. At least I couldn't have been too far behind Sting because when I came in Erza was on his case.

"-Come in soaking wet while we're just waking up. Do you not realize you're being targeted? You can't wander off on your own like that."

"Do you not realize you're speaking to a powerful dragon slayer who's consistently been in the number one guild since they started hosting the Grand Magic Games?" Although joining Fairy Tail just before we won could be considered a cheat. "I can take care of myself. It's not like Grisia was _there_."

"Aside from the fact that he was," I grumbled, taking a seat beside Gray and staring enviously at the complimentary breakfast. I had yet to get hungry, but I hadn't eaten since leaving my body either. I missed tasting food.

"Sting, are you _sure_ Grisia wasn't there?" Lucy asked. She went ignored.

"Weren't you ill when we came here? And when Grisia appears you can't fight anyway. You need to be more careful, Sting," Erza scolded.

"I've been _fine_ since we got here, right Rogue?" Sting asked, looking to his friend desperately for help.

"Yup," Rogue cheerfully reported.

Cheerfully? Rogue?

"Um… are _you_ okay?" Gray asked.

"Rogue's been weird all morning," Frosch told everyone. All morning wasn't that long, though.

Rogue must have been so mad at Sting for sneaking out that he'd gone full circle and become happy.

"I don't think I've ever heard you say 'yup' before," Sting muttered. " _Are_ you okay?"

"Peachy keen."

Liar.

"Liar," Sting accused. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I'm… uh... um… fine." Rogue smile grew bigger and faker.

We all stared. He glanced at Sting, Erza, me, Lucy, Gr-Me? I noticed Rogue noticing someone was there, but he'd never _looked at me_. Not since I sort of died, anyway.

"Are you sure you're alright?" I asked him. "You're not acting like you."

"Of course I'm alright." I let the silence stretch while everyone but Lucy tried to figure out who he was talking to. "Oh. You're the one the angels sent, aren't you?"

"Okay, you need to get back to sleep," Sting decided. "Anyone mind us staying a bit longer while Rogue gets his sanity sleep?"

Four people and one frog/cat shook their heads.

Rogue hissed when Sting grabbed his arm and tried to lead him back to their bedroom. "I'm just fine! Let go of me you half-freak!"

Sting froze, and Rogue took the opportunity to break out of his grasp and bolt out the door. So Sting was a half demon on top of being a siren? Ah! No! I had to catch Rogue! If something was wrong with him it was probably my fault for looking away!

Everyone else had the same idea, chasing Rogue out onto the streets. Sting caught him first, in a sense. Laser breath looks really handy for trying to hit a target without destroying the surrounding buildings, but I still think my roar is better. With a hit to his leg Rogue stumbled, and everyone caught up. He activated shadow drive and began fighting like a man possessed.

"What in God's name is going on here?"

I flinched at that voice. That ungodly perfect voice that could only belong to the meanest angel ever. "Trisiel? Where are you?"

"Here." The angel manifested beside me, glaring down at Rogue. "We asked you only to keep an eye on Rogue. Without a host body or a powerful enough mortal ally to help take on another lord demon, Grisia wouldn't dare approach Rogue himself. Considering that he lost such an ally earlier this week, guarding him shouldn't have been a difficult task at all! How could you have let a low class necromancer posses him?"

"The necromancer is inside Rogue?"

Trisiel didn't roll his eyes, but the patients in his voice was just as patronizing. "No. The necromancer is in his own body. He put another spirit in Rogue. A human who'd been sentenced to hell, from the looks of it."

"Can you de-possess him?" I asked.

He shook his head. "We have a method for extracting demons in human bodies, but a human in a human body is too hard. We may accidentally remove Rogue instead, and while him dying is the easiest solution to end this disaster, we can't take an innocent life."

"He killed a dragon," I heard myself say, though I couldn't say why I was arguing against keeping Rogue alive. Between him and Sting I liked Rogue more. Just observing them as a ghost he seemed like the nicer of the two.

"Duly noted. Rogue was possessed on your watch, so you will need to find a way to fix this, or we will not fix you. If the spirit that's taken over him brings him to Grisia we'll have to kill him before any of the other lord demons can make their move, and if he dies you will be held accountable. We tend to send half demons down to hell anyway. Having this on your record won't help your case."

"Right." I pulled out my sword… but what good would that do? I couldn't hack Rogue to pieces getting the other spirit out. "Can I make this thing just harm ghosts?"

"No. You'll need to find a less violent solution than nearly killing him," Trisiel told me.

I'd stopped focusing closely on the fight, but somehow Rogue had gotten a few feet between himself and the others. He drew in his breath and released a Shadow Dragon Roar, and when the inky darkness had cleared he was gone.

"Can you follow his scent?" Gray asked Sting.

Sting lifted his nose into the air to sniff, then shook his head. "He must have gone somewhere downwind of us. All I can smell is the ocean and the breakfast buffet. And you. Get a shower."

Aaaaah. Someone was giving Gray grief in my stead. Okay. Between him and Rogue, I liked Sting more.

Gray grumbled and went back inside while Erza and Sting ran off in pursuit of Rogue. Lucy stayed right where she was and looked at me and Trisiel. "Is this the angel?"

I could feel Trisiel's glare burning a hole in me. "Uh…"

"It's not something that screams 'secret'. He has wings," she pointed out.

"But he mentioned an angel to you?" Trisiel checked. When Lucy nodded he glared at me and hissed, "The deceased are forbidden from sharing knowledge of the afterlife with the living! I told you not to contact anyone, didn't I?"

"She contacted me."

"And since you showed up in front of me anyway I don't think it matters if he mentioned an angel or not," Lucy added. "Besides, Natsu's body is still alive, so he's not among the deceased."

Somehow, Trisiel's glare didn't affect her.

"Let's go somewhere where Lucy won't look crazy talking to us," I suggested.

-o-

On the patio behind the hotel Trisiel paced back and forth, muttering about demons and Rogue while Lucy got herself comfortable with a book and a drink so she could pretend she was relaxing and thinking about the story aloud if someone caught her talking to thin air.

"I'll get right to the point," she said once she was settled. "I want to be able to talk with Natsu without worrying that he'll get in trouble."

"To help people move on we don't allow-"

"I get that Natsu's a spirit now, but you gave him a mission that involves a guild member, who I'd prefer we keep alive and away from Grisia. If Natsu and I have the same goal, and I can see him anyway, then we should be allowed to work together. I can help when and if he needs others who are still living to cooperate, so you're only making this harder if you refuse me."

Trisiel considered it. "Very well. Natsu will be permitted to talk to you while he completes his mission to guard Rogue-should he start _guarding_ Rogue. This will only be allowed if you hide that you are getting information from him. If you let others on to the fact that one of their former guild members is among them in all but the most dire of situations then we will refuse to return Natsu's soul to his body."

"I'll look crazy if I don't hide that I… wait, what? You're holding his soul hostage?"

"He should consider himself lucky. Once someone enters the afterlife we rarely offer them a chance to earn their life back," Trisiel told her. "Natsu has largely been a good person, despite his heritage." Despite being one of Grisia's descendants. That was what Trisiel had been talking about when I agreed to guard Rogue.

"Why not just return him to his body then?" Lucy demanded. "Why did you need _Natsu_ to do this job? Why not go yourself?"

"Because," Trisiel told her, "Natsu is Grisia's son."

"Grisia's been sealed away for much too long. No way is Natsu that old."

"It's a term we use for half demons. All descendants possessing the gene for a lord demon's power are considered children, no matter how many generations removed. The demon is considered the parent. Natsu is Grisia's son. His demonic energy gives him the ability to use a weapon that can still affect the corporeal plane, even if he can't use and angel's sword as well as he could a demonic weapon. Grisia can only notice Natsu from close up, whereas he could spot an angel from miles away. Even sending an angel isn't real protection. It takes all thirteen of us angels to properly repel and seal a demon, and after Lucia's betrayal we're only twelve. Stopping a demon ourselves requires we convince him that he has something to gain from aiding us, and since we banished him to another plane he's rarely even come to this world, let alone helped."

"Lucia isn't… sealed?"

Trisiel shook his head. "We can only seal creatures that came from hell. However, unless the lord demons give him a good reason to get involved he should be content to watch the chaos unfold," he said. "Of all the lord demons Lucia has the sharpest ability to sense chaos, but no need to consume chaotic energy. While the others, even his own children, are driven to wreak havoc, he won't come merely to join in their power struggles. That's good new for us, since he's the strongest or the lord demons."

"But… then he could have…" Lucy shook her head, returning to the original topic. "Well if you can't handle a lord demon yourself, why bother sending Natsu?"

"Because Natsu can handle any other threats-if he is _present_ for them, and because Grisia has few enough remaining children that he won't harm one who's still partially alive unless he sees them as a serious threat, meaning until there are more lord demons running amok he will prefer to leave Rogue be than go through Natsu to get to him. Also, as the first lord demon freed Grisia will have an edge over the other lord demons, should they escape from their seals. Having it known that his own son is defying him will make Grisia look weaker, and prevent any triumphs among the lord demons for a while. Hopefully long enough for us to find a way to stop this mess.

"Of course, the most important task here is to keep Rogue safe. Without him the lord demons can raise hell, but they can't actually turn this world _into_ hell. Preventing this takes priority above all else, so much so that we, the angels, have taken care to put barriers around the guild that should hold a lord demon at bay so long as the walls are intact. Though removing him did keep Grisia's followers from putting their all into demolish the building, it has also put Rogue in harm's way. Under the barriers we placed on that buildng his nature shouldn't have been detectable, but now Grisia knows his target. You would do best to keep him there from now on. As it would happen Remial tells me that Rogue is heading back towards Fairy Tail. I will send you-" he looked at me "-back there to deal with this problem. We can't teleport the living, so your friend will have to catch up."


	21. Freed finds himself in an awkward spot

The guild would have taken more damage had it not been for Juvia thinking to make it rain. Grisia left not too long after the others got away, having grown bored of arguing with nobody. The Genesis group had remained and done their best to destroy the guild hall that we'd finally restored to it's old glory. Juvia thwarted the half demon who attempted to burn it down, and Laki had found the time to restore the damaged wall after the ensuing battle.

Glass hadn't been as easy to repair, and after paying back all the debts accumulated over the past seven years and repurchasing the guild hall, Fairy Tail's budget was in the red even with the prize money. The master had bought replacement windows, but had skimped on a contractor, saying we could handle the job just fine, and making it clear that any windows broken while we handled them would be paid for by whoever broke them. That would be unacceptable.

Cana was not allowed to help.

"I can't believe he wants a lady like me doing grunt work," Evergreen complained, "and in this heat… Elfman, you're nothing but dumb muscle. Why don't you handle it?"

"A man can handle anything, but he isn't a man if he falls for such tricks."

"A _real_ man wouldn't have been knocked out cold in the fight," Ever shot back.

I tuned out Elfman's indignant response and focused on getting the glass carefully set into place. Laxus was indoors, on the other side of the window helping me get it just right, and if I slipped and dropped the glass there was a chance that people would think he was the one who had been clumsy.

"Is the master in?"

I jumped at the unexpected voice and fumbled with the glass, catching it just before it hit the ground. I focused my accusatory gaze on Rogue and tried not to think of Laxus' own judgmental gaze on my back. "He is. Are you done with your job?"

Rogue nodded.

"Is Sting with you?" I asked. I couldn't see him behind Rogue, and it was rare to see them standing more than ten feet apart. "The Rune Knights think there are still some Genesis members hiding around town. As their main target, it might not be safe for him to be back here yet."

"But they tracked us to the beach," Rogue said, face innocent like a child who didn't get why he was being scolded for throwing a ball through his neighbor's window. Now where had that analogy come from? And what was Rogue doing looking innocent? He hadn't hung around the guild for long but the only expressions I'd seen him make were for annoyance and disinterest, and maybe once he showed concern.

"Are you drunk?" Laxus asked. "You don't look like yourself."

"I'm _fine_ ," Rogue insisted, rolling his eyes with such an over-exaggerated motion that he actually leaned back as he did so. "People keep asking me that."

"Maybe because you're not fine," I suggested.

" _Maybe_ I don't need to be interrogated by a queer," Rogue replied.

I…

What?

"Care to run that by me again?" Laxus growled, lighting crackling across his skin. I held the glass to my chest and backed away from the blast line between him and Rogue.

"Oh, not you. I meant your fanboy." With a suicidally casual air, Rogue brushed Laxus' anger aside and smiled as he gestured to me. "You're in love with blondie here, aren't you?"

"I-I… that's… you…" Had I made it obvious? No one else had ever said anything about it. Panic set in as I imagined them all talking behind my back about how they needed to pretend I was doing a good job of keeping my feelings secret.

"Rogue!" Elfman snapped, so loud the whole guild was soon either watching from the glassless window or coming out the door to see what was going on, "A man wouldn't speak like that to a guild mate. Such disgusting disrespect for privacy is unmanly."

Rogue eyes flicked over to Elfman, then to Evergreen behind him. "Oh get a room, already," he told them.

Ever squeaked and hurled a flurry of needles at him, but Rogue had already jumped out of their path while half the projectiles were still in her hand.

"Knock it off," Cana, who had set down her keg to come out and see what the fuss was about, told Rogue. "You don't want us to start calling _Sting_ the nice one, do you?"

Rogue smiled at her and shook his head, then added, "But I don't really care that much about the opinion of a scantily clad girl who-"

I… don't know if I can bring myself to repeat what Rogue had accused her of, but I will have trouble looking the same at Cana again, and can't fault Gildartz for the leash he now keeps her on.

And the worst of it was that what he said about Cana wasn't the worst. He cheerfully overturned dirt on Mira and Laki as well before things got ugly. When Gajeel grabbed him and told him to knock it off he started ratting off Gajeel's secrets. People in the guild the iron dragon slayer didn't like, how he'd wanted to see Lucy in a bunny suit again, smiling pleasantly as he did his best to dismantle his idol's reputation.

Was this really the guy who'd tried to defend Gajeel's Best Friends song? Rogue was smirking as he started reminding Gajeel of all the trouble he caused in Phantom Lord.

Gajeel punched him.

"Freed, you… uh…" Laxus mumbled the rest of his sentence before a blast of darkness shot between us.

Rogue had struck back. No one said anything while Gajeel stumbled back and tried to rub the inky blackness off of his face.

"Grab him!" a voice called, breaking the eerie quiet that had settled over the guild. "Get Rogue! Hold him down! He's been possessed!"

Laki stuttered out something about Rogue having fabricated her S and M torture chamber because he was under the enemy's control, but no one was listening, and no one who'd known about Mira's many 'first times' would believe her. Everyone focused on Lucy, waving like a maniac and continuing to scream for us to hold Rogue down.

With shadows still clinging to his face, Gajeel reached for Rogue again, but his vision was blurry and the younger slayer had no trouble stepping out of the way. When Elfman leapt for him as well Rogue had to put some effort into dodging, and by the time Macao, Bickslow, Jet, Evergreen, and Juvia were all chasing him as well he was clearly struggling to keep out of the way of their attacks.

Rogue was fast, but dodging Jet was just ridiculous. It was almost as if he could sense how they intended to attack him.

He shrieked suddenly as a scorch mark streaked up his arm, stumbling and grabbing the injury. Laxus seized the opportunity and shot a bolt of lightning at Rogue from the window, and even from the awkward angle his aim was spot on. The attack struck Rogue square in the chest and launched him backwards into Elfman.

Too spot on. He fell forward, twitching slightly from the shock, but not moving beyond that.

Lucy had caught up, and stood over Rogue's body, looking between it and a space just to her right in horror.

Wendy, who had been watching from behind the door, ran out and dropped to her knee's at Rogue's side, grabbing his wrist.

"His heart stopped!" She cried. "Laxus!"

Taken aback, Laxus stuttered, "I-I-I didn't mean to-"

"Laxus, come here!" Wendy all but shrieked. Were it any other situation I'd have been mad at her for ordering Laxus around, but Rogue didn't have a heartbeat, so whatever the healer said now was to be obeyed.

"Try to restart it," Wendy ordered. "Here. Shock him here."

She rolled Rogue over and tore off his shirt, revealing a figure that distracted her for an instant before she placed Laxus' hands on his body. The brief sensation of a powerful wizard using magic was followed by a convulsion from Rogue's corpse. Everyone waited, holding their breath and hoping for the best. Nothing. Another try. Another.

Then Lucy stepped back, nodding and whispering something to the air.

On the sixth attempt Wendy pulled Laxus back and checked, saying she felt something. Rogue's heart was going again. Rogue wasn't dead. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and waited for some further response.

He didn't wake up.

"Take him to the infirmary," Makarov said, wearily. "Freed?"

"Y-yes sir?"

"Please set runes around Rogue's bed to prevent him from escaping if he's still not in his right mind when he wakes up."

"Yes sir."

As I walked past him, Makarov grabbed my coat and added, "And Freed?"

"Yes?"

"If you want my grandson's hand in marriage, I'll gladly give him away at the wedding." A wink thrown in at the end made it obvious that he was joking, but Mira's squeal made it equally obvious that she hadn't caught that.

Laxus sputtered in indignation. I blushed and mumbled something before hurrying to set the runes around Rogue.

Possessed or not, if Laxus avoided me for this, I was killing Rogue when he woke up.

-o-

Rogue looked content in bed, not at all like someone who'd gotten a bad enough shock to have their heart stop. As he rolled over while I set the runes a smile bloomed on his face that would have been much more handsome if he hadn't then murmured something about me being anxious. I tried a few times to wake him, but he slept right through my shaking.

The rest of the group that had slipped away during the attack caught up to Lucy not to long after the protection around Rogue was set. Their story didn't quite match Lucy's. They could only say that Rogue had suddenly been acting strange. That he'd run off and they only tracked him back to the guild because somehow Lucy was certain that's where he'd gone.

"She seemed to think Genesis was responsible for it," Erza had told us after Lucy had gone home to handle some sort of issue with Natsu. "Why Genesis would want to control Rogue when Sting is the one Grisia is after I don't know, since they didn't try to make Rogue grab Sting, or even to lead him into a trap. The whole thing was strange."

Including Lucy, who had gone home to handle some sort of issue _with_ Natsu. I glanced over to Natsu, still unconscious in the bed closer to the door. Gray was finally returning to normal after Natsu fell into a coma. Lucy seemed to finally be losing it.


	22. The Spell was lied to

How many times can you shoot your blood at an enemy in four days, at a high enough pressure to do damage, without dying from blood loss?

Genesis expected too much from me.

They still hadn't tracked down Elmairy's seal, though they _had_ narrowed the places where he could be sealed down to a few small sections of the Woodsea. They'd been leading me to all the locations they had left in the hopes that my ability to see magic energy more clearly than humans can would help me catch sight of the seal.

"Is this the only demon you people know about?" I'd asked as they led me there.

"We've already located Ecilan and are closing in on Ceo," Gost explained. "We'd have a host for Ecilan lined up, but there turned out to be a second seal set around him, and the man who tried to get someone to remove it for us was arrested for attempted murder before Grisia showed up and helped our movement gain a real following. No one's dared check since."

"Is the area guarded now?"

"No. We'd just rather not release Grisia's rival while he's the only lord demon backing us."

I was trying keep track of all the demon and Inherent politics, since they were trying so hard to make me one of them. Ecilan and Grisia were enemies. I'd be careful to remember that.

Since I'd helped to empty the council's outpost the group had been lax, wandering around in small parties or on their own. I was just about the only one they kept an eye on, and that, they promised, was more because they were hoping to catch me using Etherion again than because I was a concern to them. They'd been making up excuses to have me fire it off despite my protests that I couldn't just use it whenever I pleased.

We'd stopped to rest in a small clearing not too far from the site they wanted me to check when I noticed an unusual magic pattern forming around us. They had, on one other occasion, set up a protective barrier around a camping site, so I didn't think much of it. This barrier looked different, but so does every barrier that was cast by someone else. Besides, I was tired enough that I wouldn't have cared even if it did look threatening. My physical form had been flickering in and out all day from having so little Etherion to support it. While everyone else gossiped and paid the barrier no heed, I lay down to nap.

When I heard shouting I took my time getting back up, and by then some of the Genesis members were starting to panic, pounding at the barrier and demanding to know what was going on.

Well _no wonder_ it looked different. It was designed to keep things in. That would be a detail to remember for next time. I could rematerialized outside of it, but that's a thing most living creatures can't do.

Men came from the trees to surround the barrier. I recognized the Rune Knights from my last fight, but this time there was man dressed in a way that I figured must have made him commander.

"This is the army," the man said. "For the murder of several knights, including special operative Richard Buchanan, and suspect of intent to overthrow the government, you are all under arrest."

While people protested and started throwing magic at the barrier, Gost looked to me and whispered, "I don't suppose you could use Etherion again."

"I… could try… but…"

"These men have a bone to pick with your caster. He ran out when they tried to execute him. If they catch you, you might be dispelled."

Or returned to that awful lab.

I stepped out into the open and faced them, looking through them with an unfocused gaze as I tapped into my Etherion reserves. It wouldn't take much to break the barrier, but I didn't have much left to spare. Maybe I could also hit one or two people. I started trying to trace the barrier back to its caster.

"-Bastard did throw in his lot with those-"

"-Least we'll finally get to see him swing for-"

"-Wasn't he human though?"

"Stop!" The commander snapped. "It's not him. It's the thought projection. He must have escaped when Shadow Alp was attacked."

And no way in hell were they taking me back there.

-o-

I woke up in someone's sleeping bag, which wouldn't have been too awful if I'd remembered crawling into it. Extracting myself was hard. I thrashed about a bit and had to stop several times to rest before I finally escaped it. There… probably wasn't any danger. The tent I'd woken up in looked familiar, but if the Rune Knights were letting Genesis use them while they transported us…

I crawled out of the tent and clung to it while I pulled myself up. The whole world tilted and blurred, magic drifting around me looking too distinct and bright while the physical objects faded into gray hues and occasionally vanished from my vision entirely. I flickered in and out a few times, then vomited.

Well, that was new. In my seven years of life not once had I ever gotten sick like that.

"Shit. Spell looks like it's in bad shape," someone said. I hadn't noticed people around me.

A hand patted my shoulder, then slipped through when I flickered again. For a moment nothing happened, then someone said, "Get back to bed. You look like you shouldn't even be able to stand."

"The Rune Knights…?"

"Pushed back, for now. We managed to fight them off once you broke through the barrier. We owe you one. We're increasing security, so you'll be fine to get some rest-and you've earned it! Gost wants you fully recovered before we have you doing anything else."

That was really new. I couldn't remember ever being told that I got to recover from anything before.

I craned my neck to look at the speaker, who looked like a grey blob obscured by earth magic. "Y-yeah. I'll… where is Gost?"

"He should be in his tent, organizing patrols," the blob told me.

"Thanks." I took a few shaky steps before getting than hang of walking while dizzy. I had to stop from time to time when my vision blurred too badly, and everyone's protests that I needed to lie down didn't help, no matter how nice it was to have people concerned for me.

When I explained that I just wanted to thank Gost before I would be able to rest they backed off, and one man even pointed me in the right direction for Gost's tent. No one helped me walk, but for as often as I was flickering it wouldn't have helped much anyway.

There were men guarding the ring of tents around Gost. A security precaution, they said. So the leader of their group and the men helping him organize everything would be able to make plans without being overheard by potential spies. They wouldn't let me through until someone explained that I refused to rest until I saw Gost, and apparently getting me to bed was more important than security protocol because they let me through for that.

Or maybe they were just bad guards.

Whatever the case, I got through and figured Gost's tent must have been the one in the center, radiating magic while the others look bare. I stumbled up to it and stopped at the door, giving my vision a moment to de-blur and listening to them talk while I waited.

"It could have been worse. Considering they had Barns' group completely surrounded, we could have lost all of them. We should be thankful they only captured five."

"Thank God for that spell, right? Weirdest blessing we've ever had."

I couldn't fault them for saying weird. At least they were glad to have me.

"It's lucky for us that he doesn't like the council. Imagine if he'd just gone off on his own."

Nervous laughter floated out. I crouched down and reached for the tent flap to let them know that wasn't why I was helping, but Gost corrected them first.

"He wants to be a regular human. Told one of the drakes so. I'll need to give that one a promotion for thinking to tell The Spell that Lesus could do that for him."

"Lesus can't do that," one laughed. No unease this time, though my heart was certainly pounding faster. "No demon could. If there is _magic_ for making _more_ magic _not_ magic, you probably need to be asking heaven for help, not hell."

"And that's not something we need people telling our little godsend." Gost said.

And he…

And he wasn't someone I needed to be telling that I was gone! Couldn't do that! I'd been helping them for a lie? Those… they…

They were no better! They were no better than the lab! Making me nearly kill myself casting spells over and over, like I wouldn't unravel if I ran out of energy! Tricking me into doing whatever they wanted without any benefit to me. Putting me through so much that I could barely stand for their own gain! They were no better than the lab! They were no better than the government! Than all those people who'd taken one look at me and screamed like I was some sort of inhuman monster! Fuck them! Even _h_ _e_ was better than them! Than every other human who'd ever looked at me and made it worse. At least all _he_ did was ignore me! If I still had the Etherion to use…

I didn't have enough energy left to throw a tantrum, but it wouldn't be too hard to slip out. Besides, even when I recovered all of my Etherion I couldn't take on all of Genesis _and_ their lord demon.

As I headed back to my sleeping bag and idea struck me. I couldn't take on both, but a few well aimed blasts of Etherion could easily take out enough of Genesis to cripple them, and that wouldn't leave me at Grisia's mercy at all if there was another demon, particularly a rival of his, to keep him busy. Besides, whatever Grisia knew about Lucia…

Luck was with me. I spotted the man I'd been talking too earlier outside the tent I'd been given, arguing with someone for letting me wander off. When he saw me his voice eased, maybe his expression did too but it was hard to tell. "There you are. You're in no shape to be so active."

I nodded, stopping for a moment when moving my head while walking threw off my balance.

"Well, get back to bed," he told me before starting to walk away.

"Wait!"

He stopped and looked back at me.

"You said that we know where Ecilan is."

"Yeah."

"Where is he?"

Whatever Grisia knew about Lucia, why couldn't any of the other lord demons know it? I was better of asking heaven than hell? Well, there was a piece of heaven that had dropped into hell, wasn't there?


	23. Rogue's secret is valuable

Wendy had struggled with my burn, so I'd settled for having Porlyusica rub salve on the wound and bandage it up. No one could tell me how I'd ended up with a burn mark tracing all the way from my elbow to my shoulder. Macao and Romeo had been fixing up the back of the building, apparently, so I shouldn't have come in contact with any fire magic. I had to take their word for it. I had no memory of even waking up the other morning, nor of returning to the guild, nor of apparently outing Freed and acting like a bitch to Gajeel.

Thinking about how I'd gotten so far on Gajeel's bad side would have made me feel queasy all over again, but my own negative emotions were having trouble touching me just then, Sting's were so overwhelming.

"And they said your heart _stopped_ ," he reminded me for the umpteenth time. "Just stopped. That is… I mean… shit, Rogue, to think we came that close to losing you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. If I hadn't gone and released Grisia… shit… I'm sorry, Rogue."

I moaned, which drew another flurry of apologies from Sting, thinking I might have still been in pain from everything that had happened the day before. My arm did ache, but I was bordering on ecstasy. Sting rarely radiated so much guilt or fear, and I'd never felt this level of both coming from him at the same time.

Was it wrong of me to get high off of my friend's negative emotions? Absolutely. Did I care just then? No, not really. I just had a dead guy use me as a meat puppet and my heart stopped by a guild mate. I figured I'd earned a bit of chaotic energy.

No one thinks to call it that. Their idea of chaos is the mess the guild creates when a bar brawl starts up. Chaotic thoughts and feeling are everywhere. I could feel it in the negative emotions coming from Sting, in the distrust from Erza, waiting outside the door, in the disgust Gildarts was feeling over what his daughter had done, and his self-doubt over whether or not she'd have still done it had he been a larger presence in his life. I got sweet tastes of it whenever someone tried to get away with a lie, when a terrifying memory was called up, or even a fond one, if the memory was of someone knowingly doing wrong. There was nothing better than the feeling that coursed through me when I detected the chaotic energy it all generated.

And there was no better chaos high than the one I got when I sensed death. It wasn't so bad, a nice treat actually, if I passed up a place where there had been a murder, a suicide, anything to suddenly end a life. No, to unexpectedly end it. Abrupt deaths were painless. It was the ones where people lay there, bleeding out and dreading their fate, that really gave me a thrill. It was even better when my powers gave me a vision of the chaotic event. It did get problematic from time to time, though, when my instincts kicked in and told me to let death happen to someone around me, when I became more interested in that high than in saving a life.

Like I had been with Gray.

No wonder all my half-siblings hadn't made it past thirteen. Until Sting had come in panicking I'd almost been considering doing something drastic myself, if it meant not risking the guild trusting a half demon with their lives again. A half demon who'd be moaning with pleasure over their deaths. The decision not to lock myself up forever might have also been influenced by Frosch clutching my collar and crying herself to sleep when she heard about my brush with death.

Thoughts of those two snapped me to my senses, and I took Sting's hand so he'd stop apologizing long enough to breathe again.

"I'm alright now."

The assurance only lessened his concern. The guilt was still there. I needed him gone if I was going to think straight.

"I'm alright. You need to settle down. Why don't you go to the lake?"

Sting flinched, and a panicked _he knows_ flashed through his mind before he calmed. Maybe he remembered that I _didn't_ know what he did when he went swimming. I couldn't really say. I only picked up chaotic thoughts, not calming ones.

That was the initial reason I'd kept it secret. Why let people know you hear all their dirty thoughts but never anything good about them? Why let them know I could hear the plans they were making to cheat on their wife, but couldn't tell if they were being nice to me because they were otherwise nice people or because they just didn't want to be seen as apathetic to children? I was older when I first realized that there might be something wrong with me, and took the time to research where my powers came from. Telling people your dad is a demon either gets you taken by child protection services, institutionalized if they realize what sort of demon you're talking about, or if they believe you, gets you branded as a hell spawn. I'd seen how Sting reacted to being accused of being a half demon. I'd seen how Lisanna had been pleased with the idea that Lucia had no kids.

I'd sooner die than be seen as another one of the monsters trying to create hell on earth.

-o-

It was twilight when Lucy and Makarov came into the guild infirmary to see how I was doing. I was ready to get up and go home, and would have if I hadn't been ordered to stay in bed, but Lucy felt the need to inspect me as if I'd been shot full of arrows. And still had the shafts sticking out.

Her eyes stayed on my bandaged arm. "Does that hurt?"

"Not much."

"So you can still use it then. I was going to say now you and Gray have one good set between the two of you but… never mind. I… um…" She glanced to her left. "Are you sure he okayed it? …Well… if you say so…"

"Lucy?"

She turned back to me, forced grin on full force. "I… ah… So I… have the ability to see spirits."

"And…?"

"You don't think I'm crazy."

"We call those people necromancers. They're a type of Inherent."

"…Oh." She glanced to her side (to a ghost?) again, then smiled at me again. "Good then. I'm not just weird."

Makarov cleared his throat and told her, "I'd have liked to have learned about this earlier. We're expected to keep note of what abilities or wizards possess, and at a time when Genesis is running wild we need to know which of our guild members they might show more interest in."

"Ah… well… I only just learned I could do this a few days ago," Lucy explained. "A-anyway, there's a ghost who… uh… who's helping me out until Genesis is taken care of. He was telling me about what happened to Rogue."

My ears perked up. By every account but Lucy's I'd just gone batshit crazy, and according to the guild Lucy had also lost it and said I was possessed. If she was willing to explain her version of it, I was all ears. Given how insanity ran in my family, I liked the idea that neither of us were losing our minds.

Lucy cleared her throat and spoke more confidently. "My companion, who I cannot name, has informed me that Rogue was possessed by a spirit summoned here by a necromancer. Another necromancer, that is. Fortunately, his spirit was expelled from Rogue's body before Rogue's was when Laxus almost killed him, and my companion was able to follow him. He and… other people, have tracked this spirit to the necromancer who was controlling him. This man was working for Genesis, but since we have no proof we can't have him arrested. We just need to be on the lookout for him."

Because keeping my eyes peeled for ghosts was absolutely something I could…

Wait…

I hadn't noticed right away with two living people in the room, but I was picking up the same feeling as I had all those times that my senses had screamed that someone was watching me in an empty room. Was I sensing ghosts now?

 _Perfect_. Who knew how many of _those_ were out there. I'd be getting weird sensations for the rest of my life. And what if I sensed a ghost while I was bathing? I couldn't stop ghosts! I'd just get to know some dead pervert was watching me bathe.

Who cared what Sting would say about it. I was taking bubble baths for the rest of my life.

"It's fortunate that they weren't able to get their target for them in the end," Makarov said, reminding me that two living people were still there. "If the spirit who'd possessed you had done a better job acting like you, you would have been the perfect person to take Sting by surprise."

The truth of that was so heavy it was almost suffocating. _I_ could have handed Sting over to Grisia.

But Lucy shook her head and said, "Sting wasn't the target."

"What?" we both asked. Sing did have Grisia's name written on his stomach in glowing runes, after all.

"Well, he was, but someone else went after Sting," Lucy elaborated. "Genesis possessing Rogue was a separate issue. He's another target, though my companion doesn't know why they'd be interested in him."

Other than that I was Lucia's only living descendant, I couldn't think of a reason either.

Wendy had struggled with my burn, so I'd settled for having Porlyusica rub salve on the wound and bandage it up. No one could tell me how I'd ended up with a burn mark tracing all the way from my elbow to my shoulder. Macao and Romeo had been fixing up the back of the building, apparently, so I shouldn't have come in contact with any fire magic. I had to take their word for it. I had no memory of even waking up the other morning, nor of returning to the guild, nor of apparently outing Freed and acting like a bitch to Gajeel.  
  
Thinking about how I'd gotten so far on Gajeel's bad side would have made me feel queasy all over again, but my own negative emotions were having trouble touching me just then, Sting's were so overwhelming.  
  
"And they said your heart stopped," he reminded me for the umpteenth time. "Just stopped. That is… I mean… shit, Rogue, to think we came that close to losing you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. If I hadn't gone and released Grisia… shit… I'm sorry, Rogue."  
  
I moaned, which drew another flurry of apologies from Sting, thinking I might have still been in pain from everything that had happened the day before. My arm did ache, but I was bordering on ecstasy. Sting rarely radiated so much guilt or fear, and I'd never felt this level of both coming from him at the same time.  
  
Was it wrong of me to get high off of my friend's negative emotions? Absolutely. Did I care just then? No, not really. I just had a dead guy use me as a meat puppet and my heart stopped by a guild mate. I figured I'd earned a bit of chaotic energy.  
  
No one thinks to call it that. Their idea of chaos is the mess the guild creates when a bar brawl starts up. Chaotic thoughts and feeling are everywhere. I could feel it in the negative emotions coming from Sting, in the distrust from Erza, waiting outside the door, in the disgust Gildarts was feeling over what his daughter had done, and his self-doubt over whether or not she'd have still done it had he been a larger presence in his life. I got sweet tastes of it whenever someone tried to get away with a lie, when a terrifying memory was called up, or even a fond one, if the memory was of someone knowingly doing wrong. There was nothing better than the feeling that coursed through me when I detected the chaotic energy it all generated.  
  
And there was no better chaos high than the one I got when I sensed death. It wasn't so bad, a nice treat actually, if I passed up a place where there had been a murder, a suicide, anything to suddenly end a life. No, to unexpectedly end it. Abrupt deaths were painless. It was the ones where people lay there, bleeding out and dreading their fate, that really gave me a thrill. It was even better when my powers gave me a vision of the chaotic event. It did get problematic from time to time, though, when my instincts kicked in and told me to let death happen to someone around me, when I became more interested in that high than in saving a life.  
  
Like I had been with Gray.  
  
No wonder all my half-siblings hadn't made it past thirteen. Until Sting had come in panicking I'd almost been considering doing something drastic myself, if it meant not risking the guild trusting a half demon with their lives again. A half demon who'd be moaning with pleasure over their deaths. The decision not to lock myself up forever might have also been influenced by Frosch clutching my collar and crying herself to sleep when she heard about my brush with death.  
  
Thoughts of those two snapped me to my senses, and I took Sting's hand so he'd stop apologizing long enough to breathe again.  
  
"I'm alright now."  
  
The assurance only lessened his concern. The guilt was still there. I needed him gone if I was going to think straight.  
  
"I'm alright. You need to settle down. Why don't you go to the lake?"  
  
Sting flinched, and a panicked he knows flashed through his mind before he calmed. Maybe he remembered that I didn't know what he did when he went swimming. I couldn't really say. I only picked up chaotic thoughts, not calming ones.  
  
That was the initial reason I'd kept it secret. Why let people know you hear all their dirty thoughts but never anything good about them? Why let them know I could hear the plans they were making to cheat on their wife, but couldn't tell if they were being nice to me because they were otherwise nice people or because they just didn't want to be seen as apathetic to children? I was older when I first realized that there might be something wrong with me, and took the time to research where my powers came from. Telling people your dad is a demon either gets you taken by child protection services, institutionalized if they realize what sort of demon you're talking about, or if they believe you, gets you branded as a hell spawn. I'd seen how Sting reacted to being accused of being a half demon. I'd seen how Lisanna had been pleased with the idea that Lucia had no kids.  
  
I'd sooner die than be seen as another one of the monsters trying to create hell on earth.  
  
-o-  
  
It was twilight when Lucy and Makarov came into the guild infirmary to see how I was doing. I was ready to get up and go home, and would have if I hadn't been ordered to stay in bed, but Lucy felt the need to inspect me as if I'd been shot full of arrows. And still had the shafts sticking out.  
  
Her eyes stayed on my bandaged arm. "Does that hurt?"  
  
"Not much."  
  
"So you can still use it then. I was going to say now you and Gray have one good set between the two of you but… never mind. I… um…" She glanced to her left. "Are you sure he okayed it? …Well… if you say so…"  
  
"Lucy?"  
  
She turned back to me, forced grin on full force. "I… ah… So I… have the ability to see spirits."  
  
"And…?"  
  
"You don't think I'm crazy."  
  
"We call those people necromancers. They're a type of Inherent."  
  
"…Oh." She glanced to her side (to a ghost?) again, then smiled at me again. "Good then. I'm not just weird."  
  
Makarov cleared his throat and told her, "I'd have liked to have learned about this earlier. We're expected to keep note of what abilities or wizards possess, and at a time when Genesis is running wild we need to know which of our guild members they might show more interest in."  
  
"Ah… well… I only just learned I could do this a few days ago," Lucy explained. "A-anyway, there's a ghost who… uh… who's helping me out until Genesis is taken care of. He was telling me about what happened to Rogue."  
  
My ears perked up. By every account but Lucy's I'd just gone batshit crazy, and according to the guild Lucy had also lost it and said I was possessed. If she was willing to explain her version of it, I was all ears. Given how insanity ran in my family, I liked the idea that neither of us were losing our minds.  
  
Lucy cleared her throat and spoke more confidently. "My companion, who I cannot name, has informed me that Rogue was possessed by a spirit summoned here by a necromancer. Another necromancer, that is. Fortunately, his spirit was expelled from Rogue's body before Rogue's was when Laxus almost killed him, and my companion was able to follow him. He and… other people, have tracked this spirit to the necromancer who was controlling him. This man was working for Genesis, but since we have no proof we can't have him arrested. We just need to be on the lookout for him."  
  
Because keeping my eyes peeled for ghosts was absolutely something I could…  
  
Wait…  
  
I hadn't noticed right away with two living people in the room, but I was picking up the same feeling as I had all those times that my senses had screamed that someone was watching me in an empty room. Was I sensing ghosts now?  
  
Perfect. Who knew how many of those were out there. I'd be getting weird sensations for the rest of my life. And what if I sensed a ghost while I was bathing? I couldn't stop ghosts! I'd just get to know some dead pervert was watching me bathe.  
  
Who cared what Sting would say about it. I was taking bubble baths for the rest of my life.  
  
"It's fortunate that they weren't able to get their target for them in the end," Makarov said, reminding me that two living people were still there. "If the spirit who'd possessed you had done a better job acting like you, you would have been the perfect person to take Sting by surprise."  
  
The truth of that was so heavy it was almost suffocating. I could have handed Sting over to Grisia.  
  
But Lucy shook her head and said, "Sting wasn't the target."  
  
"What?" we both asked. Sing did have Grisia's name written on his stomach in glowing runes, after all.  
  
"Well, he was, but someone else went after Sting," Lucy elaborated. "Genesis possessing Rogue was a separate issue. He's another target, though my companion doesn't know why they'd be interested in him."  
  
Other than that I was Lucia's only living descendant, I couldn't think of a reason either.


	24. Jellal pays a visit

My heart almost stopped when I saw the charred remains of the Fairy Tail guild hall. Had anyone been inside at the time? Was anybody hurt? Natsu? Erza?

"Hey Romeo, they moved back to the old building already," Merudy told me.

"Oh… right." I knew that.

That would be inconvenient. Sneaking into a windmill on a hill outside of town wasn't too hard, but getting to the lavish structure in the center of town would be. Our best bet would be to go at night, but the sooner we could get back on the move the better.

"I don't suppose you can send a thought projection into the guild hall?" Ultear asked.

I shook my head. "The spell still isn't working." It hadn't been since I'd gotten amnesia. I blamed the etherion.

She sighed and pulled her hood up. I followed suit. Merudy, who had long outgrown the image the council put on wanted posters, strode into town ahead of us. We gave her a minute so she wouldn't be associated with me and Ultear should we be spotted, then we followed after her.

The guild was crowded around her when we entered the hall. Erza noticed me entering first, flashing a smile before nudging her friends and gesturing to me and Ultear. Makarov shut the door tight behind us as we stepped in and dropped our hoods.

"Put those back up!" he ordered. "There are Rune Knights in the back room."

I would have been nice if there had been a sign posted out front to warn us. I pulled my hood back up and glanced around the crowd for unfamiliar faces. A few wizards from Sabertooth seemed to have switched sides, but no one from the council was in the room. That was a rare stroke of luck for me.

"You should make this visit brief," Erza advised.

"We'll try," Ultear told her. "We heard Grisia had shown up here. We were hoping you might have information on what they're after."

"Sting," someone said automatically.

Further explanation wasn't quite as fast. After a bit of odd shuffling around Juvia stepped forward and began to talk. "Well… the lord demons used to have control of most of the world. They would be worshiped by Inherents and humanoids, and they would oppress those who weren't born with the ability to use specific types of magic. They were sealed away, but now that one of them has returned, their old followers are trying to return things to how they once were."

She went on when pressed, explaining things like half demons and the different lord demons she knew of before getting to the point. "Lord demons aren't part of this world, they're spectral. Closer to spirits than monsters. They can do harm, but they aren't fully material, so they need a host body in order to be at full strength. One of our members accidentally marked themselves to be Grisia's host."

"When he accidentally released Grisia," Cana added a bit too cheerfully given the subject. Must have had something to do with the empty wine barrel beside her.

"Is Sting here?" Merudy asked.

Erza shook her head. "He said he was going down to the lake. We tried to have someone go with him for protection, but he gave them the slip and we couldn't spot him in the water. We're only assuming he's safe because the sky hasn't turned an evil shade of red."

That is usually a good sign.

"Then does anyone else know how he undid the seal?" Merudy asked.

Everyone looked around before the crowd parted to show Rogue Cheney at a far table, playing a card came with a cat in a frog suit.

"Rogue!" Erza called.

He looked over, shrugged, then looked back at his game.

"Rogue!" Erza repeated menacingly.

This time he got up, but made no rush to get over.

"Our visitors wanted to get to meet you."

"That doesn't interest me."

I almost said something about that, but by then a Rune Knight was milling about on the far side of the room, pretending not to be interested in the visitors who had the whole guild's attention. I couldn't tell someone who would have been a kid at the time that they were talking to the crazy guy from the tower without getting everyone in trouble.

"They want to know how Sting released Grisia," Mira told him. "You're the most likely person for him to have talked about it with."

That did seem to interest Rogue, and he started telling us what all he knew. He couldn't say where exactly Sting had found the amulet that caused the whole mess, but he could describe it in detail, and explained how Sting had dropped it in the mountains where it had come in contact with a stone slab, cracking the rock and releasing Grisia before Sting accidentally absorbed the amulet.

For fear that he'd lose interest in telling us, I was silent while he talked. I opened my mouth to speak when he was done, but Gray beat me to it.

"That amulet still sounds like the one from the ruins."

"The… what?" Lucy asked.

"That stone amulet it was requested Natsu get," Gray reminded her. "I think the gem may have been a different color, but it looked the same as how Rogue described the one Sting had. Well, it did after Natsu…"

When Gray fell completely silent I asked, "Where is Natsu?"

"Dead."

Erza slugged Gajeel and corrected him before I could go into shock. "He's unconscious. There was some sort of seal around the amulet he and Gray stumbled on that nearly killed him, and he hasn't woken up in the weeks since they found it."

"So we don't need to worry about keeping that amulet away from them…" Ultear mused. "We'll need to trail Genesis for other amulets, but this one should protect itself."

Gray shook his head. "It looked like a dull grey rock when we first found it. It was after it nearly killed Natsu that it turned metallic and the gem started to show. The seal is probably broken now."

"Then we go check it out," Levy decided. "I've been wanting to go and translate that stone you saw there anyway."

-o-

Somehow, I ended up on the investigation team without Ultear or Merudy. Gray and Lucy came along, as did Levy and, to my delight, Erza. Everyone but Lucy had tried to coax Rogue to come as well, but as it was he'd been leaning towards Lucy's suggestion that he avoid lord demons and focus on recovering from some sort of incident, and when a train ride was mentioned he'd backed out completely. Absolutely no transportation, he said. Even my offer to fly him there, since I couldn't just get on a train myself, was refused.

Lucky break on his part. In the middle of August the ruins were sweltering. The girls must have known it would been so awful when they volunteered me for the job before skipping out of town.

"The easiest way to get back there would be to trigger the same trap as before," Gray mused. "I was the one who found the room from there, but when I left I thought Natsu was dead. I wasn't paying much attention to how I got out."

"Don't worry about it," Lucy told him. "I've got some direction that will help us get back there."

With the guidance of her compass spirit and an invisible figure that she tried to be subtle about talking two we were led over a mile through the ruins, then down a flight of stairs, two more miles, and then down stairs again. My heart went out to Gray for having to walk all that in a shocked daze.

At some point Gray recognized where we were and took the lead, eventually stopping just before one of the rooms. I walked in without thinking, breathing a sigh of relief as the air around me instantly cooled to a bearable temperature, but when I looked back no one else had followed me.

"Last time… the door sealed itself when we went in," Gray said.

"Thanks for the heads up."

"The rest of us heard the whole story already. We must have assumed you knew," Erza explained apologetically. "In any case, it looks like it's safe to go in this time."

Levy came in first, setting down her notes on the language from Sting's amulet and getting to work.

Gray, who I'd always seen as a fairly lax individual, was downright neurotic while we explored the room. He'd panic if anyone got too close to the amulet, sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room, and at random intervals he would flinch and spin to the door to make sure it was still open. Erza and Lucy were both careful to follow his instructions of what not to touch, so I did as well.

Only Levy seemed to find it too much work to take him seriously. Though she was careful not to bring the amulet over to the stone slab or even remove it from its place, she leaned in so close her nose almost touched it while she studied the writing on it. We all leaned forward a bit, wondering if anything would happen, and when she pulled away and noticed us she laughed and said, "Yup. This is almost exactly like the one Sting showed me. It's in better shape than his, but if this one was in it's intended place in these ruins and he dug his out of the mud, that's only to be expected."

"But it doesn't say Grisia, does it?" Lucy asked.

Levy shook her head. "Ecilan. This is the seal of the lord ice demon."

Well, the demon had done one good service. He'd kept the room he was trapped in cool enough to prevent us from getting heat stroke.

"I'd have liked to see Grisia's seal," Levy mused. "Too bad it's at the bottom of a lake. If Sting's good at holding his breath I could try and get him to copy it for me, or maybe send Juvia, but now seems like a bad time for that. The stone is Ecilan's seal, it says so right here." She walked over to the stone slab and tapped a section of writing in lower right corner. "It tells all about his standing with Lucia, the king of demons, how much power he held over the other lord demons, his entire history while he was free in our world. If we could find all thirteen of these-"

"Twelve," Lucy interrupted. When everyone looked to her she added, "There is no seal for Lucia."

Levy shrugged. If the girl who talked to ghosts said so. "If we could find all twelve of these, we could get a much more complete record of the time period when the lord demons walked the earth. Most of what we know about them now was preserved by Inherents through word of mouth, half of it is either fake or discounted as fable. With this…"

"Does it tell us anything besides history?" Gray demanded. "Maybe how to remove a seal or why the amulet tried to kill Natsu."

"It didn't try to kill him," Levy declared. She hurried over to the far side of the seal to show us more runes that we couldn't distinguish from the rest. "There's nothing about removing seals, but whoever wrote this did mention an extra condition to Ecilan's seal. It seems he and Grisia got along worse than you and Natsu used too. Ecilan was sealed away first, and as an extra measure to keep him from coming back Grisia placed a curse on the amulet to turn it to stone. Only his power could restore it to the form it needed to break the seal. The curse must have mistaken Natsu's fire magic for Grisia's power. He's probably just too drained of magic to do anything but sleep."

Gray's eyes lit up at the idea that Natsu was only sleeping, and he began joking about what he'd do to the idiot for worrying him when he woke up. Erza was joining in and Lucy… Lucy was biting her lip.

"Do you know something?" I asked her.

"Natsu… is a half demon…" she said softly. There was no reason anyone should have been able to hear it over the ruckus they were making, but everyone fell silent when she spoke. "He was one of Grisia's descendants. That's how the amulet mistook his power for Grisia's… my companion says."

"Lucy has turned into her clock spirit," Levy muttered.

Erza laughed a little too loudly at that, and said sheepishly, "Well… I probably owe Sting an apology for acting like it may be a bad thing if he were a fire half demon. In any case, once Natsu recovers-"

"It's not like that," Lucy insisted. "Demon magic… I… _my companion_ says it's not like that. The curse took part of Natsu's… um… essence, maybe? He's being a bit vague on the proper term. This seal… that is… unless we reverse the spell, Natsu won't wake up."

"Then we bring Natsu back here," Erza decided.

"Well… I don't know how to reverse the spell. My companion says the person who does won't tell hi-me, won't tell _me_ , until after they've found a way to seal Grisia."

"Then we'll figure it out ourselves," Gray insisted. "Levy, did you translate everything?"

Levy nodded.

"Good. Let's go. We can come back with Natsu's body and return him to normal now."


	25. The Spell pays a visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also known as that chapter where the spell finally gets named.

_His_ disguise had been more thorough, but I didn't remember it well enough to mimic, and if I got any major details wrong then they would have seen that I was only trying to look like _him_. Remembering the dwarf girl's comment about my eyes, I projected a pair of shades to wear over them instead. It was a nice trick, but it would be useless if I ever tried to clothe anyone else with it, and I'd have preferred to be able to change my body at will than to be able to affect what I was wearing over it.

I didn't really get what _his_ situation was, but the only people I was concerned with keeping my identity from was the guild that he'd gone into the day before-the same one that had been hired to act as a sacrifice for Ecilan. It would have been easier if someone in Genesis could have told me flat out where the ruins were, but I'd have to settle for knowing someone who could lead me there.

When people first started coming out onto the streets but had yet to overcrowd them I made my move. What I do isn't warping per say. It's simply dematerializing and rematerializing elsewhere. I can't carry objects with me, just change where I'm being projected. _He_ could move me around easily before I had my own mind, but doing it myself took focus. If stealth weren't a concern I'd have opted to fly instead. Or just walk.

Without a good idea of the inside of the guild hall I couldn't send myself in there. I waited until no one was looking to make a run for the front door.

A few people, people I had no information on, looked up at me in surprise when I came in.

"Where's your outfit?" a blonde girl asked me.

"Torn," I told her.

This seemed to be an acceptable answer. She showed no suspicion while she said, "Alright, but if Erza asks, tell her it happened here. She won't be happy if she learns you came here hiding only your least distinguishing feature."

That's what _she_ thought.

But the name Erza clicked with me. It must have been something on my caster's mind the last time he tried to create me, because I found myself getting short of breath trying to recall what significance Erza had. Fortunately, the blonde just giggled at my odd behavior and explained it away for me.

"Oh, she won't be _too_ awful, don't worry. Did you come to help Natsu? That's sweet of you. We were just getting ready to take him to the ruins. We'll get a new disguise on you and buy an extra train ticket."

I almost interrupted her four times when she didn't give me a chance to say no, but mention of the ruins shut me up. What a lucky break. I wouldn't even have to explain why 'their friend' needed to go back there. They were offering to take me.

-o-

The costume they found was a bit pink, and it was too late to change the shades to match them. I must have looked odd, but if they were laughing at how they'd dressed me up it meant they weren't noticing me acting odd.

There were three of them. The blonde, who said she was Lucy, but 'we' hadn't spoken much so she could understand me forgetting, was one of the travelers. There was also a black haired boy named Gray, who the final party member had scolded several times. He carried Natsu, the pink haired one they were hoping to wake up. A blue cat named Happy also sat by Natsu. Sitting across from me in out cabin booth was a woman with long scarlet hair. Erza. She hadn't introduced herself. No one had called her by name. I just knew. This was Erza. Beautiful. Powerful.

A wrench in my plan.

She seemed to be a friend of _his_. Every conversation she tried to strike up with me hinged on previous talks that I hadn't been a part of. I made a point of busying myself with Lucy. _He_ didn't talk to her often, by her accounts, so he would be the least likely to notice if I acted oddly.

I was acting odd too, and I couldn't do anything about it. "Aren't you going to take those shades off?" the cat asked me when we were deep in the ruins. I'd have loved too, but I didn't have much of a choice until I was done with the group.

The room where the lord demon was sealed was deep in the ruins. I began to sweat as we drew near. I'd never met the other lord demon. I had no idea what to expect with them. What if Ecilan didn't like that I'd worked for Grisia's men for a few days? What if the lord demons were so spiteful that they would unravel the makeup of a poor spell just for agreeing to help people who had lied to him? What if I had some sort of Grisia taint from working with Genesis? What if Ecilan just didn't care for me enough to do anything?

"Hot, isn't it?" Erza asked.

"Yeah," I guessed. I'd felt a heat wave Grisia had created several days ago and it had scared me something awful. Unless magic was involved I had no sense of hot or cold.

I got a taste of cold when we entered Ecilan's room. The others seemed just fine, I couldn't say why. If it was already hot to them then maybe the cold was nice. My first time feeling a chill wasn't so pleasant. No shivering though. From what I'd dug out of _his_ memories the other day, I had to act like I enjoyed the temperature.

Maybe this was a bad idea…

But the amulet was right there…

"Levy had no ideas of her own," Erza told me, "But the master thought that maybe we could-h-hey! Jellal!"

I just had to get the amulet, then I could drop the act, shiver as much as I damn well pleased, and meet the demon.

"Jellal, what the hell are you doing?" Erza shrieked as I lifted the accursed thing from its spot in the center of the room.

The reaction was immediate. It went from cold to frigid, even the humans showed sign of being cold now. The amulet had been so shrouded in magic I could barely make it out, but a gem that I could feel imbedded in it began to glow so brightly that it showed through the dark energy. The stone slab, the one I needed to break, began to vibrate.

"Jellal, put that back!" the cat cried. If it said that name one more time, I was going to gut the thing.

The spiteful look I gave them was hidden by my shades. Erza lunged for me in my moment of hesitation, but the nice thing about being from _him_ is that his magic is good for speed. Before she was halfway to me I was at the slab, slamming the amulet against it with the force of a meteor.

For one horrible moment nothing happened. Even when cracks ran through the stone I thought I may have only hit it too hard.

Then mist seeped out. Slow at first, but as the amulet became soft the mist began to tumble out faster. When the magic of the metal in my hand started to merge with my makeup of my own magic I tried to drop it, but the artifact clung to my hand, intent on becoming one with me. As it disappeared completely inside of me the mist started gushing out, stirring up wind in the underground room and distorting my magic. I had to concentrate to keep my physical form steady, and extra details started flickering out.

The clothes had been given to me by Erza and her friends. They would last as long as it took for them to wear out. The shades were an extra bit of the magic I was projected with. They vanished.

At first no one noticed, even when the mist pulled itself into the center of the room and stopped blurring everything they all focused on it rather than me. It twisted into a humanlike form, taking on features and… no… the way its magic blurred I could almost make out features, but the mist, the part that would be visible to others, was just holding a humanoid shape.

Ecilan looked around, eyes passing between each person in the room before stopping on me.

**You released me on your own?**

"Yes." He looked powerful, but I'd been expecting… something a little more omnipotent. That he didn't meet my standards made him easier to speak to. That his blurring features made it look like he had clownish fins made it a cake walk. "You're a rival of Grisia's?"

"Jellal, I can't believe you'd think he'd help if we released him! Even if it could, we needed to help Natsu wake…" Erza stopped as I glanced at her, her own eyes locking in on mine. "You… who are you?"

I smiled for her, the same smile as _his_ , and looked back to Ecilan. "I need a favor."

 **And you expect me to grant it?** Ecilan laughed.

Yes. I did. "I want to get rid of the Genesis members loyal to Grisia," I told him. Maybe that was all of Genesis. I didn't care.

Ecilan mulled it over, then laughed again and stepped forward. I held my ground as he moved towards me, but flinched back when he reached out to touch my forehead. Whatever the mist was made of, Ecilan radiated magic. He could easily do some real harm to me, should he decide to. I was being rash, but I wasn't completely stupid.

I also wasn't completely on guard. The mist rushed forward and wrapped around me, probing my skin. Ecilan scowled when I looked at him in confusion and pulled back.

 **You aren't human,** he said. **You aren't anything.**

"I'm a spell," I told him.

The mist circled around me, never touching as Ecilan inspected my body. **A though projection,** he mused. **How inconvenient. You seem to have a mind of your own, but that does _me_ no good. Harm, in fact. You've marked yourself as my host, but if I could make do with a body made of magic mine would work just as well. Though I must admit, you are held together with something powerful.**

"Etherion," I told him. "My caster was under heavy Etherion exposure when I was created. He had me redirect it into the sky, which only increased the amount I was in contact with. After he lost consciousness it kept me from fading. He didn't wake up. There was no one to think for me. I started thinking for myself."

 **Etherion…** Ecilan cooed, as if I hadn't said anything past that. **I can't use you as a host, but that doesn't mean you aren't of use. You want a favor? Perhaps we could settle for a... mutually beneficial partnership.**

At this point Erza reminded us that there were others in the room. From the looks on their faces even her companions seemed to have also forgotten that until she said, "Not a chance. Neither of you are getting out of here."

**Oh?**

Summoning a sword, Erza lunged at us. Her blade slipped right through the mist and dug into my arm. I winced, but the wound was starting to close up as soon as she withdrew the blade and in a matter of seconds the pain was gone. She stared at the spot where she'd sliced all the way to bone, then she turned to the others.

"Gray! Lucy!"

Gray charged first, which put me in great spirits. I saw him summon forth the energy to form ice, and I saw all the energy slip from his hands into the walls around him. He stopped mid stride and stared stupidly at his good hand, then helplessly up at Erza.

Ecilan laughed. **You'd use an ice mage in the presence of the lord of ice? You'd use an ice mage in the room meant to** _ **hold**_ **the lord of ice?**

Meaning Ecilan wasn't just letting me fight to prove I was of use to him. I glanced over to him, annoyed that he wouldn't have actually told me I was on my own, and missed seeing a blast of sand getting shot at me.

As I blinked away the grit from my eyes I looked over to the last girl who had to try and take me. She and the Celestial Spirit she'd summoned looked equally shocked by the fact that all they'd done was tear holes in my clothes. All three of them would take no effort to overpower. I cast a simple spell from _his_ repertoire, one with enough force to knock Lucy and her summon back. Knocking them out would take a little finesse if I didn't want to drop the ruins on top of me.

 **Can you break through the ceiling?** Ecilan asked.

Well, never mind then. Whatever the lord said.

I held my hand up and fired magic above me, caking myself in dust that fell from the hole I blasted. I had two more ceilings to break through. I'd be sure to fire magic at an angel the next time.

Ecilan's mist rushed up out of the room meant to block ice magic, creating another powerful gust that whipped through the room. I braced myself and tried to hold steady while he exited, but it did little good when the wind uprooted Erza and sent her crashing into me.

 **Spell! Come!** Ecilan's voice echoed from the floor above.

I rolled over, shoving Erza off of me and getting to me feet. One Meteor spell would get me up and, now that I thought about it, was probably enough to break through the other levels too. It wasn't like I had to worry about breaking my neck on impact with the ceiling.

Yellow light glowed around me. Just launch through the hole, bust open a few more, and get out. Easy.

"Siegrain," Erza coughed. "Stop. You're… you're part of Jellal, right? Siegrain…"

Siegrain? Now that _really_ struck a chord, but who was she talking too. There was just her, Gray, the cat, and Lucy… And me.

I had a name? That's right! I had a name! That was what Jellal had convinced everyone else to call me! That… no, that's what _he_ had convinced everyone to call me. I had a name. I was given a name by _him_. I was surrounded by people who said I ought to be a part of _him_.

"Siegrain," she pleaded.

I took a step back, then activated the spell and blasted through the ruins. Meteor allows a person to move at a speed not possible to track with the naked eye, and even then I couldn't have gotten out of their fast enough.


	26. Zeref is on the move

There was dirt clinging to my hair.

I brushed is out as best I could, and there was nothing else to be done about it. I'd gone to sleep in a nice and grassy field, but there wasn't even dead grass left when I woke up. Not a rare occurrence by any stretch of the word, but it wasn't common either for my magic to go so far in my sleep. Fortunately, most wild animals have the good sense to stay away from me. I didn't see any corpses this time.

Not waking up to dead bodies usually meant it was going to be a relatively good day for me. I yawned, stretched, did my best to smooth out my clothes, and headed down to the stream. I was drinking when a sign that I was actually in for a rotten day manifested in the field around me.

**You could live better than this.**

I scowled. That voice didn't belong to Lesus or Chikus, but it had the same presence to it as any lord demon's voice ought too. I'd have known if I were coming up on a seal, and made sure not to sleep so close. For such a powerful presence to have come up to me instead meant it must have been a freed lord demon. I looked around for the beast, but didn't see anything. It would be nice if I'd imagined the voice. Hell spawned scum weren't quite _living_ the same way things from earth were. It was random if my magic effected them or not, and it was rare for me not to want them dead.

But then the voice was there again.

**Zeref… what** _**are** _ **you doing here?**

"Which one are you?" I demanded. "Show yourself."

Mist drifted around me, swirling through my disheveled hair and dying the reflection in the water red. Lesus was a black demon. Chikus was orange. I'd never stumbled upon a red demon's seal. I'd never looked for seals either, though back in the day I'd never turned down the chance to learn from the creatures inside them.

**I am Grisia, lord demon of fire.**

A relative of Natsu's, then. I itched to ask about him, but I was certain I'd kept better track of all the half demon children than their parents had. Instead I asked him, "What do you want with me?"

**Right to the point. You must want me gone to be so brief. Zeref, you are familiar with Lucia, correct? I heard whispers that he visited you at the height of your power.**

And while I was on the rise, and too many times since. I don't like the man, he's too… too focused. He becomes intent on one thing and sees nothing else. He wants to claim vengeance for some slight, and raises a whole town while trying to skin a man alive. Nothing but negatives, really. Revenge, collateral, and all. But he was better than the lord demons. He at least waited until someone gave him a reason before wreaking havoc.

"What do you want?" I repeated. "If this is about his newest child, I can't tell you where he is."

That was what Lucia always wanted. Keep this one from jumping off a roof. There was only ever one at a time, as if he was afraid to have two, lest he need to look away from one to watch the other, and he'd always come to me hoping I could catch the one that was researching which rivers were the best to dive into. Like he thought I was some sort of expert at keeping things alive. One of his kids had gone mad just from standing too close to me.

**How is it that you summon Lucia to yourself?**

"I don't."

**You don't.**

"I don't. He finds me."

The mist condensed around me, becoming a thick fog that blocked even the tip of my nose from my vision. I gasped when it released heat, enough to fry any normal person. This was the sort of power Natsu needed to come at me with.

But a lord demon-

 **You have no means of summoning Lucia?** Grisia verified.

"I don't," although he'd paid a visit just a few summers ago, ecstatic to have a child-a boy-finally hit fourteen. Why he wanted that I couldn't say. Ceo had over a thousand children with some degree of power inherited from him. So many that they'd all broken off and started categorizing themselves based on their different weather related specialties. Maybe even demons could feel left out when they were the only ones not seeing any grandchildren.

Why Lucia was so proud of that boy, of Rogue, was irrelevant. What mattered was that Rogue almost certainly _was_ a way to summon Lucia. I'd had to spend a week listening to what all the kid had done in the first fourteen years of his life, as recounted by the most powerful monster in recorded history. If Lucia was that attentive then no doubt he'd see if his precious son were in trouble. But wherever Lucia stayed when he was ducking the angels' attention, it took some time to come from. Enough time that when he saw a child in peril they had either resolved it themselves or passed on by the time he was there.

That was something sudden though. Anything from an avalanche to a group of aggressive bandits to a gun they were pressing against their own temple. If one of Lucia's children were to be taken hostage, with the ransom directed to Lucia…

 **You don't even know where Lucia is?** Grisia pressed.

"No," I told him. Hesitating, I added "I know it takes him some time to come here from wherever he was exiled to, but I couldn't say where that is or how he reaches this world."

It was the truth, and it might spare Rogue's life if he got caught. Grisia no doubt knew who Lucia's child was, the poor bastard would radiate both angelic and demonic energy while still looking completely human. As for his capture being a matter of _when_ as opposed to _if_ , I could only guess why Grisia didn't have him already. Maybe dumb luck. Maybe another lord demon was fighting to be the one to force Lucia out. I'd always assume lord demons were rash. Beasts that ran headlong at things and applied force until they got their way. The type of creatures who would only wait a few minutes before killing a hostage, unless they were told that it would take much longer for their demands to be met.

The mist spread out, though the heat remained. It would be nice to have known where Grisia's head was. Glaring at a thin mist doesn't feel too impressive.

**Very well. As you were, _Zeref_.**

And then he was gone.

I took a few minutes to refill on all the water I'd sweated out, then to wash that sweat out of my clothes before getting up.

The field where I'd slept was a good size for pacing as I tried to think of what we'd do next. I couldn't warn Lucia. Not only did I have no idea of how to contact him without involving his kid, but convincing him that there was a valid concern would just bring him here, and if he was there and a lord demon was already wreaking havoc then he would join in, if only because the angels would deal with the demon before trying to banish one of their own again. I could try and watch over the kid myself. Grisia no doubt already knew where Rogue was-probably better than I did-so I wouldn't be exposing him if I did that.

But then there was the issue of my presence and chaos half demons not mixing well. Even if this one was made of tough enough stuff to stay sane while being bombarded with dark thoughts, negative feelings, violent visions, all while trying to conform to human expectations of how such experiences should be perceived, he still might not be able to handle me. Then again, if he'd found some way to cope with it, maybe he wouldn't mind. One of his kids had gone mad from getting too close to me, but the others had gotten nothing worse than a powerful taste of chaos. I wreak of death, and I'm full to the bursting point with dark thoughts and negative feelings. And who can feel wrong for taking pleasure in the Black Wizard Zeref's misfortune?

There was a risk, but for the sake of preventing the demon apocalypse then my best bet was to keep a much closer eye on Rogue. Having Rogue die while Lucia was on his way was senseless, but if it looked like there was a danger I couldn't stop before it brought Lucia running then I'd just have to kill Rogue before Lucia could even get to his feet.


	27. Rogue is worried

Because Lucy had so strongly insisted that I was also a target, when she returned with the rest of her team saying another lord demon had gotten loose they decided that Sting _and_ I need to be put under guard. As for how another demon had been released, the Rune Knights had been furious, and accused the guild of conspiring with Genesis, but Erza had insisted that a friend of theirs who'd accompanied them had turned out to be an enemy in disguise. According to their story he was the one responsible for making the whole mess worse.

"Which is great and all," said Sting when we explained the change in the situation to him, "but if I'm _Grisia's_ host and _Ecilan_ doesn't like Grisia, why am I being locked up too? Shouldn't a lord demon who doesn't want Grisia any stronger getting loose mean that Grisia has _worse_ odds of catching me?"

"You're not being locked up," I told him. "They're keeping us under guard in the guild."

"They can't post guards around our house? We're not done unpacking!"

"It's been almost a month since you came here," Lucy said. "How long are you two going to take?"

"Months, if we're stuck in the guild hall," Sting complained.

"Fro doesn't mind," Frosch said. "Fro gets to have sleepovers with all the people who stay to guard Rogue."

I nodded and picked her up. "This isn't something that can go on for long, Sting."

"If nothing else, the Council will run out of money to keep Rune Knights staffed everywhere and pay guilds for missed work soon," Makarov added.

He didn't look even a little content being told that, but at least he shut up.

-o-

The peace and quiet didn't last. An hour into our time at the guild, which was far less time than we might spend there of our own free will on any other day, Sting began complaining again.

"You should at least let us go around town."

"We can guard you better when we have walls around us," Lucy said. She had wanted to be around all the time to keep an eye on me, so she was sleeping in the guild too. This wasn't creepy at all. Neither was her ghost friend, who wanted to help watch me constantly and who she was needed to convey messages for. Frosch tried talking to 'her companion' to see if he was scary or not but Lucy insisted that the ghost wasn't allowed to hold casual conversations.

"Lector would have said Fro was stupid for wondering if the ghost was scary…" Frosch mumbled after walking away.

I bit my lip. Frosch had never made it a secret that she missed Lector, but she hadn't been bringing it up so often recently, and I had hoped she was beginning to move on.

One person I knew hadn't even begun to heal was Sting. He was back to acting like he had before, sure, but more than once I'd caught him trying to mask his emotions when he saw another slayer with their exceed. Envy, sadness…

But Sting was mad then. "I'm not staying here!"

"Yes you are," Mira said. She smiled as pleasantly as possible, but the look on her face promised horrible pain if he didn't knock it off. Sting didn't argue any more after that.

"But can't you just remove Grisia's mark?" Sting whined. "That would be easier than actually taking on the demon, right?"

"We'll look into it," Lucy promised.

Levy jumped up. "I started collecting books related to the lord demons. I'll bring them here and we can look for references to how that would be done. The lord demons used to regularly change their hosts, so there has to be some way."

Sting kept being a pest to Lucy after Levy left. He shooed Frosch away for trying to tell him to stop, and she was in tears after that so I pulled her aside and let her beat me at a few card games. One reason I don't miss Lector, horrible as that sounds, is that there's no one to put Frosch down now. She's so used to being told she's acting stupid that you can't convince her that she's actually good with cards. She just thinks all her opponents are either bad or like to go easy on her.

Frosch was winning another round when Levy came back carrying a stack of books taller than she was. Gajeel sprang to his feet and grabbed them all, telling her that she was too much of a shrimp to hold that much and carrying them the rest of the way to the table Lucy was staring at me from.

Not. Creepy. At. All.

But the books finally took her eyes off of me. Even if I could still feel the ghost's gaze there was some comfort in having at least one less set of eyes drilling into my back.

Frosch and I finished another game before Levy said, "This almost counts…"

"What is it?" Sting asked, leaning over her and trying to scan the page she was on. The hand that wasn't supporting his weight on the table was holding his stomach. The mark wasn't hurting him again, was it? Just thinking about how bad of shape he'd been in the last time we saw Grisia made my blood boil.

"Um… well, apparently…" Levy coughed. "When anyone forces their way out of a person they've possessed, they often… knock out, I suppose it the right word… they knock out that person's soul on their way. When a lord demon changed hosts, they would leave the host body of their own free will and kill that person in the process."

"That… doesn't help. At all." Sting pulled back up, no longer interested in reading.

That didn't help. Now if Sting got possessed it wasn't even a matter of getting him back after a few years of hell. I struggled to keep my face impassive and scanned his own expression for any fear. He looked as undisturbed as I tried to appear by the news, but when he came over and sat by me I could taste the dread radiating from him. I shivered at the sensation and forced myself to remember that a friend fearing for their life was _not_ something you were allowed to take pleasure in.

The following news wasn't much better. "Here's a surgical procedure for removing the mark. It says it worked once and… oh… and it failed the other twenty some times before they stopped trying it," Lucy read.

At one point Levy even said, "There's a tale here about a man who fell into a coma just before being possessed. He was in such a deep sleep that when Georgo left his body after a few weeks he was in no worse shape than before, although he still never woke up."

I had to clench my fist so hard I drew blood to keep from moaning in ecstasy over the misery coming from Sting as they read on and on about how avoiding possession and being possessed both spelled almost certain doom.

"Maybe we can just hope Ecilan gets his host and kills Grisia before he can catch me," Sting moaned.

"Ecilan already tried," Erza told him. "The one who was marked as his host isn't a real life form, just a thought projection that's going around pretending to have a beating heart, so he can't posses them."

"Thanks," I told her, although I wasn't sure if I was being sarcastic or not. I _did_ need to comfort Sting, but…

Frosch set her cards down and waddled over to Sting, who had let his head drop to the table, and patted his hair. "It's okay. Rogue won't let any scary demons hurt Sting,"

Sting looked up at Frosch with a look of gratitude that, to be honest, I never thought anyone would give to her. He looked over at me next, and I nodded and tried not to think about how I might be tempted to hand Sting over instead. My craving for chaos had certainly grown stronger in recent years, and as it was… as it was I wasn't going to think about what that meant. Instead I looked back over at Lucy to try and look like I was one-hundred percent sympathetic. "Is there anything that _won't_ kill Sting in those books?"

"The paper itself isn't that lethal," Levy told me. Gajeel gave me the same glare I gave her.

"There is one," Lucy told me, "but it's the last thing that could work. It says that if all of the angels combined their magic, they could seal any of the lord demons without harming their host. The problem is… the twelve who stayed faithful to the heavens aren't enough. _All_ the angels means Lucia too. It seems that the last time all the demons were sealed they only succeeded in getting Lucia to cooperate because at that time the lord demons had teamed up, and were trying to overthrow him. Even when he finally shows himself, it would probably be some time before the lord demons make the same mistake."

"You can't ask your ghost buddy to talk to some people upstairs about making an exception for me?" Sting asked.

Lucy shook her head.

"So in short, there's no way to remove the mark on Sting," Erza concluded.

Gray nodded, adding with as much sadistic pleasure as I was trying not to feel, "Once we bash Grisia into the ground, Sting can just pass that mark off as a drunk tattoo."

Sting growled at that. I ignored him and tried going over all the horrible stories the girls had reported about those who'd been marked. I didn't expect to find a solution to Sting's dilemma buried in there, but something in their story had felt off. Something…

"Wait," I said. "What was the very first one? What happened when a demon left a host body?"

"It killed them," Lucy said. "All of these end with someone dying."

"But that didn't just go for the lord demons, did it? You said _anyone_."

Levy flipped back to the beginning of the first book she'd read and nodded. "Anyone. It makes a point of not saying that it only happen when demons are involved."

"So why am I alive?"

Everyone exchanged glances. I _had_ been possessed, hadn't I? And the spirit had left, hadn't he?

"I think…" Lucy said after a moment, "I think you _did_ die, right? That spirit… I'm fairy certain of what I saw. It drifted out of your body first, and before your spirit had completely left Laxus got your heart beating again. That spirit didn't leave your body on its own. It was forced out."

-o-

Sting was still sulking at dinner time. Mira gave us meals for free, since we were stuck with the food the guild served until further notice. He poked at his plate a bit, but only ate after Gajeel teased him about being afraid of what might be in his stomach besides that mark.

"If you're up to it, we could go out back and spar," I offered when he curled up after eating all that he was going to.

"No."

"We're allowed out on the pool grounds. You could swim too."

"I _hate_ pools. They put all sorts of crap in them that choke me up."

I sighed. What about moving to Magnolia had made Sting so difficult? Usually he was the one trying to make _me_ do something. "Is there anything you want to do?"

"No. I might as well curl up and die. I'm doomed anyway."

"You're also curled up already," Frosch told him.

Sting grunted and buried his face in his knees.

I finished my meal and carried our plate over to the counter. When I came back Sting said, "You know… when this first started… I was sort of thinking it didn't even matter."

"The demon?"

"Yeah… mostly Genesis. They wouldn't have targeted me, I thought, so I wasn't too concerned and… what did I care if someone else got hurt?"

Did he think he would be safe from them as thanks for releasing Grisia? What an idiot. We hadn't told the Rune Knights that he was at fault for the whole mess. If it got outside of the guild then everyone who wasn't part of Genesis would rip him limb from limb. "So this came back to haunt you."

"Yeah. But…" Sting looked up at me, "I didn't mean to cause this much trouble. There really isn't a way to stop Grisia?"

"Ecilan might take care of him for us, although a war between lord demons is exactly what we didn't want," I reminded him. Another lord demon did stand a chance against Grisia. And the lord demon that the other twelve had thought they needed to team up to overthrow would almost certainly be able to handle just one demon.

No, more than that, if he could be found Lucia might even help seal Grisia completely!

"I'm going to bed," I announced. Frosch followed me into the back storage room where two mattresses had been set up, but she'd be the easiest to deal with. Lucy hung back to take over comforting Sting. Once I'd shut the door to the makeshift bedroom for myself and Sting I waited a moment, trying to sense her ghost friend before grabbing a burlap sack from a stack of food supplies and dumping out its contents. After filling it with the clothes that had been brought from our apartment, swiping a few longer lasting food items that I could find, and hassling with the material a bit so it had a strap I could hold, I opened the window.

Frosch flew up and pulled on my hair. "Rogue, where are you going?"

"Out."

Frosch didn't realize this wasn't a valid response until I had climbed out the window.

"They're going to be mad. What if you get caught?"

"I won't." It was hard to sneak up on someone who could detect intent to harm. "I'm going to find Lucia's seal."

"But if Rogue becomes a host too-"

"It will be fine."

The lord demons' children had been treated like royalty back when they were in power. That meant their parents didn't carelessly kill them, right? Besides, I'd seen Sting's memory of what happened when the seal broke. I just had to be careful not to hold the amulet while it was in contact with Lucia's seal.

Yes, it was making things worse, but if his own flesh and blood asked him to take out a demon who had conspired against him, surely he'd at least consider it. Unless the heavens got their butts in gear and did something about the lord demons then there was no stopping Grisia anyway, and no saving Sting.

"We'll come back as soon as we can," I promised Frosch. "I just need to find a seal first."


	28. Jellal is captured

Pengrande had all but fallen to Genesis, which raised the question of how they were still struggling to overthrow the government bodies in smaller nations. It was nice, in a way. The lawlessness meant that even if there were search warrants for us so far north, none of us had to worry about our disguises slipping. Though we still kept them up, Ultear's clothes had been destroyed in an attempted mugging, and no one had looked twice at her as she walked around in the clothes the would be thief had graciously lent her. On the other hand, none of us were fluent. It was only because the branch of Genesis we were tailing knew where they were headed that we hadn't wound up hopelessly lost.

The group wasn't too large, maybe twenty people total, but they seemed confident in themselves. It had rained non-stop since we had first started following, so we were certain at least one was an ameonna, but past that we couldn't tell. It's difficult to sense Inherent magic with wizardry.

For Merudy and I, who had our hoods, this wasn't too big a deal. We were a little damp, but most of the water rolled right off. Ultear had been complaining ever since she'd had to trade out clothes, and she was not as pleased that we could guess at least one type of magic we would be up against when we finally learned what the group was after.

Unsurprisingly, she was the most pleased when they opened up the path to an old temple hidden deep enough in the mountains that almost no clouds could reach.

"Shelter," she gasped.

"Cave ins," Merudy replied.

I shook my head and stepped out after the group, careful to keep far enough back that they wouldn't be able to hear my wet footsteps. Merudy and Ultear followed in suit, putting great care into keeping quiet.

Our targets had no reason to be concerned about their volume.

"It's gotta be here somewhere."

"We won't be finding it in a hallway, moron."

"Ya never know. Grisia's amulet wasn't anywhere near the shrine by his seal. Who knows where that half-brat found it?"

"You think Ceo's amulet could be somewhere outside the temple?"

"It's possible."

Ceo. If I recalled Juvia's story, he was the lord storm demon.

This was where Ceo was sealed?

I looked back to the girls, who nodded to assure me that they had reached the same conclusion. As the Genesis team moved past different rooms we took turns slipping into them and doing a quick scan for anything that looked like what I had seen in Ecilan's chamber. If the first two amulets had looked the same except for the name inscribed on them it only stood to reason that the third would as well.

We hung back just long enough to be sure they wouldn't check any of the rooms they were passing in the next few minutes, then split and began to search each place that Genesis had passed by. They'd saved themselves a lot of time ignoring everything. Almost all the rooms contained nothing but broken furniture and dust.

A ways into the temple, I found something that looked promising. It was a little high up, but not too far out of reach to justify using magic. I pulled an old rotted chair over and stood on top it while I reached for the dull metal object that was just barely visible atop a high mantel.

My fingers closed around it just as the wood gave out beneath me. My arm hit the mantel hard on my way down, so even if Genesis didn't hear the thump as I fell they would have heard my yelp of pain. I, similarly, could hear them come running.

Ultear probably couldn't risk using her magic in a building that would likely crumble if someone gave the wall one good punch. I couldn't cast anything too destructive either. Merudy might be able to help, but she was still searching a little ways down the hall, and she'd be wiser to wait until we found a more open area to put up a fight.

Looked like I'd be playing hostage for a few minutes.

I gave the object I'd grabbed a quick glance, and it looked like a round amulet with a star shaped gem. I glanced around for a fast hiding spot, but no piece of furniture in the room came low enough down to slide it under. Settling for stuffing it inside my coat, I made sure it was concealed before standing up just in time to face the Inherents who ran in to see what the noise had been.

"You were looking for me?"

"Yes," one told me, eyes glowing with way more greed than they should. "Yes we were."

-o-

There were no good open spaces to put up a fight on the way to the room containing Ceo's seal. The room looked no different from Ecilan's, other than that it was easily half the size and had almost the entire group we'd been tailing packing into it. I was dragged in there-by my hair-and dropped unceremoniously on the ground in front of a man who's whole demeanor screamed 'leader.'

"Well, well, looks like the traitor thought he could steal this one from us too."

I glared up at the man. Sure, I wasn't the best of people, but I was certain I hadn't betrayed him personally.

He sneered back at me. "You thought you could get away with taking out or Woodsea team, did you? Grisia was furious with all of us after Ecilan got out. Taking you out of the picture will put me in his favor." He gestured for a man to the side of the room. "Jones, take care of him."

Still not a serious enough threat to risk bringing the temple down on top of everyone. I brace myself for whatever first strike the man might deliver and began running through plans in my head of how I would handle different types of magic.

But I hadn't been prepared for what happened. When he grabbed me I thought at first that he meant to hit me with a close range attack, and tried to put up some defensive magic for that. I couldn't summon any power, though. Panic took hold for a moment, but as I settled and realized he was only an anti-mage, that he was only keeping me from causing damage while they held me captive, confusion began to spread on _his_ face.

"Jones! What are you doing? Use your magic on him _now_."

"I am," Jones told the leader. "I've been using it."

"But that can't be right," the man snarled, stalking over to me and bending down to get a good, close up look. "If you were than he should have dispelled by…" his eyes caught on mine. "Ah… Ahahaha! Well what are the odds of that? We've got the wrong one. This is the real Fernandez!"

"The… r-real…?" I stuttered. Was there really someone dumb enough to go around _pretending_ to be a wanted fugitive? "Wait. Then who is it Grisia wants?"

"Oh, that spell brat of yours," the leader dismissed. Now that it turned out I was just someone with a bounty on their head large enough to keep an extended family fat and happy for a few years he wasn't too interested on me.

What the hell?

Jones' grip slackened. "We gonna let him go?"

"No," the leader decided. "Hold him here until we find that amulet. This is perfect. We hadn't brought along a sacrifice so this works out nicely. Ceo should be happy to have a former Wizard Saint's body at his disposal."

Oh joy. I shot Jones a dirty look for tightening his grip to the point that it was cutting off the circulation to my arm, then began scanning the room for some sort of escape. I should have put up a fight before letting the anti-mage grab me.

Striking him and making a run for it was my best bet. I could use Meteor to barrel right through all the men between me and the doorway. The problem then was that if I didn't get away from Jones after the first blow they'd probably put actual guards around me. There was also the concern that too much struggling might cause the amulet to slip out of the pocked I'd stuffed it into.

I looked wistfully towards the door, and saw Merudy wave to me from outside before she had to duck behind the wall to evade someone's gaze. When whoever it was looked away she stepped out again and raised her hand, drawing a star with way too many points in the air.

'Do you have the amulet?'

I nodded as slightly as I could.

She pointed to the leader and tapped her temple.

'Does he know?'

I shook my head.

She made her standard sign for silently mocking my ever present bad luck.

I sighed.

Merudy laughed silently, then ducked behind the wall again. I looked away as well, incase my staring at the doorway was becoming too suspicious. No one was paying me much heed now. Jones only looked up when I moved.

Too alert to punch in the gut. Dammit.

Ultear was standing outside the room when I looked back. She pointed to the ceiling and then moved her fingers like they were the hands of a clock. I shook my head to that too. Her magic was the absolute last thing I wanted to be caught in just then.

I had been too obvious that time. Jones looked at me, then followed my gaze to Ultear. "Hey! There's another one!"

Ultear cursed and made a run for it. I could only hope Merudy did too, but held in a crouching position on the ground I couldn't get a better view of what went on outside. I couldn't even scramble out of the way as the people stuffed into the room bumped into me in the rush out to catch my companion. The one who flipped over me completely was at least amusing-or would have been, had he not rattled me so badly that I fell face first on the cold stone tile.

Though what really made my insides go cold was the sound of metal hitting stone.

That had the leader alert again, and he yanked me onto my feet. I risked looking down, but didn't see the amulet on the ground. It had just hit the stone through the fabric of my clothes. I was almost relieved, except the possibility occurred to the leader, and he started to pat me down.

He found it.

I gulped as he held the amulet up, inspecting it with a crazed grin. "I might not be getting rid of that cursed spell brat for him, but Grisia will be more than pleased to have one of his allies back."

"That's… an heirloom," I told him lamely. My mind was racing too fast to take a moment to double check my lie. "It belonged to my grandfather. Give it back."

"You suck at that, you know," the leader told me.

I did know. Coming up with a lie on the spot was a weakness of mine, although I'm wonderful with lies if I have time to prepare them. I can act so well a person would never suspect a thing if I only knew my story ahead of time.

"You don't want to be a sacrifice?"

"No. I'd like to spend as much time as I can on earth before I get to see hell."

"And you wouldn't want to raise hell?" the bastard asked.

I shook my head.

He chuckled and pressed the amulet back into my hands. "There. You have your _heirloom_ back. Now-"

Before I could react I was shoved into the seal, the treacherous metal clicking against stone yet again as I collided with the giant slab. I scurried back, hoping that if contact wasn't held then there couldn't be any damage.

I should have applied that logic to myself too. While I stared wide eyed at the stone, praying I was imagining the hair thin crack spreading across it, I felt the amulet soften in my hand. Startled, I looked down to see it slipping around my fingers, seeping inside of me.

Shit.

Sting had run from Grisia when he was first marked. I saw no reason not to follow his example.

But Jones was at the door, grabbing me and holding me with his anti-magic again as I tried to rush past. I struggled, kicked, screamed in frustration as I heard the crashing sound of chunks of stone slab falling to the ground.

And then a deep blue mist was licking around me. A chill ran down my spine and my hair frizzled as if I'd been filled to the brim with static. It certainly felt that way as the mist condensed around me, so thick it was suffocating. I groaned at feeling in my stomach, like a hurricane was ranging in there. Was this what Sting had put up with when Grisia tried to capture him?

I gave one last desperate pull to escape Jones before the mist began to slide down my throat. The last sensation I felt was that of sparks dancing on my tongue before my mind went numb.


	29. Lucy learns a serious secret

Dealing with Sting when he was suffering a complete breakdown had been exhausting. By the end of the night he'd had such a severe panic attack that he hadn't been able to breath until he passed out from lack of oxygen. Happy had slept through more than half the day beside Natsu's body, so he was wide awake when we convinced him to keep an eye on Sting overnight.

"I wish I could tell him I was alright," Natsu whimpered.

"Once this is over and everyone has you back, he'll be over the moon," I assured him.

Natsu nodded and followed me to my own bunk on the second floor. The other guards who were staying full time at the guild were still up, so we talked in hushed whispers like a couple kids trying to keep their parents from hearing them up late until I was too tired to keep it up.

-o-

I didn't panic right away when Rogue wasn't in his bed the next morning. He seemed like the type to rise early, neatly straighten out his sheets, and get some fresh air in the poolside space he was restricted too when outside.

It wasn't until we woke Sting, who looked blearily at the empty mattress and asked, "So where _was_ Rogue all night?" that we realized there was a reason to panic.

"He… wasn't in here when you went to bed?"

"No…" Sting rubbed his eye. "Nor any of the times I woke up. I thought he might know something to say that would calm me down, but he was never there. If he was avoiding me so he wouldn't have to put up with me moping I'm going to kill him."

"I didn't see him either," Happy reported. "I would have avoided Sting too."

Sting swatted at Happy.

"Are you alright? You had a bad panic attack last night," a Rune Knight told him.

Sting nodded and tossed his sheets aside. "Just fine. Get out. I need to get dressed."

He seemed to have calmed after a good night's rest, so we left him to himself and went out to discuss Rogue's absence.

"It's possible Rogue was having as hard a time sleeping as it Sting apparently did," Erza said. "He may still be somewhere around the guild, but it sounds like he's gone."

"Check the pool," a Rune Knight barked to one of his men.

I looked over to Natsu. "Can you find him?"

"Trisiel might send me over to him again, but I can't track him on my own. I might not be sent to him until he's in danger too," he told me. "For now… I almost think we should just keep an eye on Sting. Rogue's got that weird way of knowing when there's trouble, so as long as a ghost doesn't nab him in his sleep again he should be safe. I still don't get how he fits into this, but we do know that it would be bad if Sting was caught."

I nodded and relayed that Natsu couldn't locate Rogue to everyone else. There was some panic. Some upturning of things in the guild. Some hair pulling. Happy eventually suggested that Rogue may have taken to some less open section of the storage room and fallen asleep there without meaning to. For all the noise we made he should have woken up by then, but we wanted to check anyway.

Erza knocked on the door and called out to warn Sting we were coming back in. When he didn't respond she swung it open. I had been a little worried I'd see Sting naked, but…

" _He's_ gone too?" Erza groaned. "How? We had people posted all over the guild. This was the only room we were giving them privacy in."

"Oh," a Rune Knight pointed to the far end of the room. "That window was open earlier too, wasn't it?"

"They… they climbed out a window!" Erza shrieked. "Those idiots! What were they thinking? No, they _weren't_ thinking! When I get my hands on them I'll wring their necks! Don't they realize their being targeted?"

"Sting must have gone out to find Rogue," a knight decided. "Send someone down to their apartment. Everyone spread out and search the town. We might not catch Rogue, but Sting couldn't have gotten far."

Everyone ran for the door. I looked over at Natsu again, waiting to see if he had any ideas where Sting could have gone.

"Oh!" He dropped a fist into his palm, light bulb going off over his head. "I've got it. This way!"

-o-

"The lake?" I looked around as I followed Natsu down to the water. "I don't see Sting here, Natsu."

"No, look. There." He pointed to a small form at a further point along the lakeside, removing it's shirt.

"Oh… that's right. Sting doesn't like the chemicals the guild adds to the pool. He must have come here to… to… uh…" I blushed as he slipped out of his pants too, stripped down to nothing. "He… uh…"

"He did this at the beach too," Natsu told me. "I don't know how often he does this."

"Skinny dips?"

"No, look."

I crept a little closer and watched as Sting's skin paled. Fins began to spread out from his arm and back. Absorbed with the sight, I didn't notice his legs had become a tail until he kicked and disappeared under the water.

"I think he's a siren," Natsu told me.

"Siren can take on human forms," I recalled from our lessons before hunting, "but only for a few hours. Then they begin to suffocate. We've seen Sting stay on dry land for much longer than that."

We'd also seen him having serious problems breathing. Like his asthma on the train… before we left him alone on the beach with someone who'd nearly drown.

"Maybe he's a mutant." Natsu shrugged. "He can go longer or something."

"Maybe…" I watched the water where Sting had disappeared. "Maybe… do you remember where he found that amulet?"

"No. Why?"

"I was thinking… Grisia's seal was at the bottom of a lake, in the coldest place in the country. Ecilan's was deep in the earth in a place that, according to the locals, is always miserably warm and humid. If the seals are all in places that conflicted with the lord demons' specialties, maybe the corresponding amulets were too."

Natsu stared blankly at me.

"Maybe Sting found the amulet down there," I pointed to the lake.

"What good does knowing where he found it do?"

"Well," I explained patiently, "We can't hurt him for making us worry until he comes back up, and we can't go back to the guild or look for Rogue in case he doesn't return. I thought if we speculated to pass the time-"

"That's boring." Natsu pulled out his sword. "I'm going to go fry him out."

"U-uh… w-wait!" But he was already running down to the water. I gave up and let it go. So long as he didn't bring Sting back charred…

A few minutes passed before Sting surfaced. Closer to where I was standing, he held up his arm and inspected a pinkish section of exposed skin on his upper arm. Had Natsu aimed their specifically, or did burns not show under what I could now see was a coating of pale blue scales?

Either way…

"Sting!" I called out.

He spun, staring at me with a look of pure terror on his face before disappearing under the water again. He came up a few seconds later, rubbing another burn and looking back at me.

"I _see_ you," I let him know. "You're not going to convince me otherwise by running away. Get your butt over here. You're still under guard."

Given that he'd tried to hide, I decided to wait until he reached the edge of the lake to mention I also had some questions for him. He pulled himself up into the shallow water, long tale resting on the surface while the upper half of his body shifted so that his scales on his torso and arms faded, fins retreating back into his body.

"That wasn't Takeover magic, was it?"

"If you tell anyone-"

I held a hand up to cut him off. "So what are you then? You can stay on land too long to be a siren."

Sting looked around, clearly uncomfortable. "Can I put my clothes back on?"

"You already slipped away once asking to put those clothes on. You can talk to me right here. Right now. Like this."

He still wouldn't meet my gaze. For one horrible moment it looked like he'd decided a suitable punishment would be for me to half to talk to him naked, but then the dip forming in his tail filled back out and he maintained his transformation. Lucky break for me. Natsu was only beginning to wade out of the water so I wouldn't have had much else for my eyes to be drawn to.

"I'm… not… _completely_ a siren," he said finally.

"Completely," I repeated. "You're a half breed?"

"If you tell anyone-"

"I'm not telling anyone! You haven't gone around drowning anyone that I know of-" the flash of panic in his eyes made Lisanna flash through my mind, but he hadn't drowned her. She was alive and well, whatever may have happened when we left the two alone. "So I'm not going to turn you in. Not while they still have a reward for siren hides."

"Thank you."

Wow. I'd never heard him sound so sincere.

"But once Genesis is taken care of, the rest of the guild needs to know."

"Because a humanoid being the one who released a lord demon doesn't sound suspect at all," Sting sighed. "Lucy, they didn't just start hunting siren after I broke Grisia's seal. You can't _ever_ tell anyone."

Natsu was at my side by then, and we protested in unison. "The guild would never betray a member or-"

"Let someone who was trying to release Ecilan pose as a friend, and be lead right to the seal you needed intact to revive Natsu?" Sting finished.

That wasn't what I'd meant to say, and as the first one to be fooled by Jellal's doppelganger I had no good response.

The disadvantage of having a tail instead of legs was that Sting couldn't be any taller than he was when sitting up straight, and he wasn't straight while he stared at me, pleading for me to vow silence. I'm not going to lie, even if it was momentary, it felt nice to look like the more powerful one.

"My lips are sealed," I told him. "I'll only mention it around you and Rogue."

"Not Rogue. Now can I please get my clothes? I don't like being between forms and I don't think you want to see me without pants."

I raised an eyebrow at that. I hadn't thought those two would hide anything, especially something as significant as their species, from one another. I almost asked if Rogue had any big secrets he kept from his partner, but then why would Sting know that?

"Fine. Let's get your clothes. We need to head back to the guild before they start thinking you've been captured."

"Right…" Worry flashed on his face again, lingering a bit longer this time. "Grisia. I just thought… I've outswam him once, so…"

"So it sounds like you'd be safe for at least a while," I assured him as I walked over to where he'd entered the water. Sting tried to half crawl, half slither alongside me, but eventually gave up and changed back completely. I focused more on not turning my head than on our conversation as he walked behind me. "You should stay out of the water until we've got your mess cleaned up."

"Can't. Siren suffocate on land, remember? I can go longer than a full blooded siren, and I didn't need to come down this soon, but in a little over a week my 'asthma' is going to start acting up."

"Oh." Him dying would solve the problem of Grisia's host, but I'd rather Grisia get Sting and us still have a few years to try and save him than lose a member of our guild just to prevent a lord demon from becoming stronger. "Then we'll just have to find a way to get you down here if this goes on for too long."

"Why did he even come down today?" Natsu asked. I repeated the question for Sting.

"It's… calming," Sting said. "Swimming, I mean. I just feel better when I'm in the water, and after the report last night…"

"You seemed a lot calmer this morning."

"Well, just knowing I'm going to be swimming soon helps."

I stopped walking a bit too abruptly and a wet, naked body bumped into me before hastily backpedaling. When I was done shuddering over that I asked, "You were planning to go when we woke you up."

"Turn around if you want. I'm not as showy as Gray, but I'm not going to freak out over being seen naked." I wasn't taking him up on that. "I wouldn't want to be labeled a pervert, but in case you haven't noticed I'm none too conservative. If you wanted to breath down my neck twenty-four/seven then I could manage to get dressed with that. I saw the window open all last night and decided I was absolutely climbing out it as soon as I had the energy to."

All last night. I swore. "Rogue must have slipped away as soon as he went in that room."

"He's not just in another part of the guild hall?" Sting asked, sounding surprised.

I shook my head. We'd reached his clothes, so I took a few steps past and let him re-dress. "Any ideas where he might have gone?"

"Not a one. If Frosch and I were both there… he might have grabbed something for our place, but there's no reason he wouldn't be back by now. He's the one your ghost friend is concerned about, right? What makes Rogue a target anyway?"

I looked to Natsu, who shrugged. "We don't know. The person who sent my companion is just certain that we can't let him get caught."

"It's safe to look," Sting let me know before continuing with the topic. I glanced over. In a wet shirt I could see the faintly glowing marks, and also his detailed abs. No worse than Rogue's, and actually a little exciting to see after he'd started to try and keep them covered. "I could come up with a few oddities about Rogue, but he never pressed about my swimming trips, so I'm not about to go digging into his private business." So there _was_ something. "There wasn't a fresh enough trail from the guild for me to notice when I snuck out, but if I were focusing on following him I might be able to pick up something. I'm much more attuned to his scent than Wendy and Gajeel, if you want to risk me being out that long."

"I'm not sure the Rune Knights will go for it after you snuck out," I told him, "So let's see if you can pick up his scent before they spot you."


	30. Rogue is in danger

The crackdown on guild activity had almost stopped the flow of information. It wasn't until I was at Fiore's border that I learned that someone Genesis had recruited had all but wiped out one of the outposts they'd set up in the area around a seal. Which seal? No one quire knew. Where was this? Somewhere back south, but they only had a vague idea. Who was this person? They couldn't quite say.

Frosch flew me back part of the way, but we had to take a detour around Magnolia and she could only carry me so far before I had to choose between walking and taking the train.

If I were being fair I'd admit I was afraid to get on the train, but I told Frosch that seals were less likely to be around civilization and it made more sense to hoof it. When we stopped in the woods for the night my feet were so sore I wanted to chop them off. When Frosch offered to gather firewood I didn't stop her.

After camp was set up I took stock of our supplies. I'd been rationing food from the get go, so we'd be good for another week. I took what money Erza had given to me and Sting for siren hunting too, despite neither of us having contributed to that. Sting wouldn't need it while the guild was caring for him, and if I couldn't find an odd job here and there where I could work a day or two, get paid, then leave, I'd need to have some money on hand to buy food. If the lord demons had been sealed for so long before Sting somehow came across Grisia's amulet, then I doubted I'd find Lucia in just a week.

Could another lord demon tell me where he'd been sealed? If the angels had needed his help to seal the other twelve… then he must have been sealed last, so probably not, but it was an idea worth considering. I didn't want to make the situation worse than it already was… but more than that I wanted Sting free of Grisia. If I tracked down Lucia then he'd been persuaded once to seal away whichever demon I might let lose in my search. He could be persuaded again.

"Rogue, can we have dinner now? Fro's hungry."

The poor thing was shaking too. I put another piece of wood into the fire to try and warm her, and was about to offer to hold her too when a sudden chill ran over me.

Too many visions assaulted me at once. Death. Death. Death. Senseless. Vengeful. Raging. Brutal. Painful. Swift. Sweet. All I could see was people dying over and over. Each vision starting before the last had ended. People struggling as their lives were snuffed out. People never knowing it was upon them before they were gone. People barely escaping, filled with nothing but fear. And there was sadness. Pain and hatred and sadness like nothing I'd ever felt before.

"Rogue! Rogue!"

I gasped. Finally breaking free of the vision to see Frosch inches from my face, tears in the corners of her eyes as she frantically tried to snap me back to reality. Behind her was a man I didn't recognize, asking if I was alright while radiating so much pure chaotic energy I could barely think straight.

"I… fine. Don't… worry, Frosch…"

"But… b-but Rogue just fell over all of a sudden!" Frosch cried. Another death flashed before me and I missed what she said next. "If Rouge is sick, then we need to go home."

"Would it help if I left?" the man asked.

Absolutely. I moaned in pleasure when he hesitantly took another step towards me. It would help, but I wanted him there. I wanted this. Motivations. Goals. It all went out the window in the face of such pure chaos.

"Stay," I told him.

"Are you sure? Most of your sibling have had trouble with me."

Siblings? Trouble?

I took a deep breath, trying to reign in my half demon instincts at least a little. My instincts that he knew about. That he knew he was triggering. "Are you with Genesis?"

"Who?" the man asked. "Is that a friend of Grisia's? I'm not an ally of his."

He hadn't heard of Genesis? What rock did he live under?

I took another deep breath, then a third, then stopped counting as I fought to regain control of myself. Frosch wore her confusion openly, but didn't distract me from my task. The man who was making my stomach do little flips each time he shifted also held back and gave me a chance to get myself under control.

When I finally felt composed (enough) I asked my next question. "If you aren't associated with the lord demons, then why would you know about any… siblings?"

"I'm not allied with the Grisia. I do have some association with them," the man explained. "Most often I've spoken with your father. You _are_ Rogue, aren't you?"

I nodded, fully focused on my goal now that he'd mentioned Lucia. Now to just make sure no one else learned about my heritage. "Frosch…"

"Fro will be quiet," Frosch said. "Please let Fro hear this."

There was no saying no to that face. I nodded and focused on the man. "You mean Lucia."

"Yes. My name is Baum," Baum told me. "Your friend should go home, or at least keep their distance. I don't have full control of my magic at all times. It's not guaranteed to harm a demon, and useless on someone with angel blood, but they wouldn't be safe from me like you are."

"But Fro wants to…"

"Stay here," I told her. I wasn't losing her. Not after seeing Lector die. "Baum and I will talk away from the fire. I'll come back when we're done."

Was it my smartest move? No. Did my chaos lust have an influence in it? I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. This man was dangerous. So dangerous that I had to put effort into not drooling. But amongst all the suffering I sensed from him though, I couldn't pick up even a drop of ill intent directed at me, and he did have genuine fear for Fro's wellbeing. I followed him away from the fire, stopping at the distance he saw fit.

Baum sat down in the dirt and forest debris before speaking. "I'm not an ally of any particular lord demon, but I have spoken to several, most often your father, and most recently Grisia, who you might know is freed from his seal."

He didn't live under a rock. He lived under a whole mountain if he thought people might not know about Grisia. "Him and Ecilan."

"Ecilan too? Well, hopefully they'll distract one another," Baum said. "I don't know if you realize how much danger they both put you in."

Maybe not, but… "I have an idea. You've spoken with my father before? How old are you, if you were around before the seals were in place?"

"They were there before I was born," Baum dismissed. "You can talk through the seals, with the right magic. Yes, I have spoken to Lucia. The last time would have been when you turned fourteen. He was excited by that. I can see how you managed. Few of his children were able to handle themselves so well around me."

"I could understand why," I muttered, scratching at the burn on my arm without thinking. The sting helped to draw my focus from the chaotic energy. The one type of misfortune I didn't get a high off of was my own.

Baum nodded, a brief sadness flashing in his eyes while a dozen more deaths flashed before mine. I shivered, struggling to keep composed while my demon half screamed for me to indulge again, drink in all the chaos of this man.

"My magic isn't reliable against a lord demon, but when it is it holds them off much better than regular wizardry," I managed to hear Baum say. "It would be best if they didn't capture you, so allow me to offer some protection. You'll take it, won't you?"

Yeah. That didn't sound so bad. If he thought he could hold off a demon then I wasn't going to stop him from trying. Holding onto his chaotic energy for longer didn't sound too bad either. Most importantly, though, was that he claimed to know Lucia. If he spoke to my father in the last decade then he had to know where the seal was. I nodded.

Baum smiled. Really, from looks alone it was hard to believe someone like him could handle one of _Zeref's_ demons, let alone a real beast from hell. I wouldn't have bought into a claim from such a baby faced young man if he weren't driving my demon half wild, something he was regrettably aware of. "For your friends sake, as well as your own, I'll keep my distance then. If you want to speak with me again, I won't stay too far behind. You should return to camp."

I couldn't argue without it being obvious that I wanted more visions from him. I nodded and did as he said, sitting back by the fire and roasting a quick dinner. Frosch sat on my lap until I went to offer Baum food as well, which he seemed unnaturally grateful for. After we ate I returned to the fire and curled up with Frosch.

I had a pleasant dream about the man I'd seen ripped to shreds by a monster in one of the visions Baum gave me.

-o-

"One of your friends is marked?"

I nodded.

"So then you're out looking for a way to save him," Baum summarized. "That's… surprisingly kind of you. I don't think I've ever met a child of Lucia's who wasn't self-serving before. I'd almost believe you weren't related to him-except you clearly have the proper power for it."

Baum liked to talk. A lot. At first I'd just accepted that and called him a proper substitute for Sting, but he was too levelheaded for that to really be the case. Given how he did, at any point, keep at least fifty meters from Frosch, and how he might randomly wither all the plants around him, I'd come to the conclusion that I and perhaps a few demons were the only people he'd spoken with in a long time. If he wanted to talk enough to make up for all the time he'd missed it would be silly of me to refuse a chance to drink him in more and let him prattle on, although I had to balance my time between him and Frosch. After explaining what I was to her she became convinced that the search for Lucia was stupid, and nothing I said could make her see it my way. I had to go back and assure her over and over that I was still safe.

Although Baum had said he'd hang behind us, Frosch, as well as myself during the half of the time that I kept her company, were the ones who ended up hanging behind Baum. He was the one who'd met Lucia. I told him that I wanted to speak to my father and let him lead me.

When we set up camp the next night he still refused to come close. I offered to make a fire for him as well, but he insisted he could make his own, which he didn't do. Some form of self-punishment? A preference for sleeping in the cold? I wanted to know, but I couldn't spend too much time with him while Frosch was calling for me. I wished him a good night's sleep and went to cradle her.

-o-

It was while I was tagging behind Baum the next day that I sensed danger. Real danger, and not just someone dangerous.

That being said, the feeling was vague. The thoughts I picked up, when they planned to strike at me, what magic the planned to use, were clear, but the rest came in fuzzy. Where were they? The only other life form I could pick up seemed faint, coming from all directions. I had to guess which way would be safest to dodge when I grabbed Frosch and jumped back in the last second before a bolt of magic demolished the place where I'd stood.

 **Careful,** a voice echoed. **We need him alive.**

"My mistake. I thought we only needed him in danger."

**There's no sense in harming a corpse.**

"Rogue?" Frosch asked, clutching my leg as tight as she could.

"It doesn't sound like Grisia," I tried to assure her.

"We must have been found by Ecilan," Baum decided, walking back to me. His chaotic energy licked around me again, and my vision faded for a moment while I fought for control of myself. It was different this time. There wasn't as much regret in him. The visions of past deeds still came to me, but they were faint, not affecting me as much, as if he were bottling them up, or at least not dwelling on them. As for what emotions he felt, I picked nothing up.

That made it much easier for me to notice that his eyes had changed from funeral black to blood red.

 **Another one.** Pale blue mist began to seep through the trees, coming from all sides. So it was Ecilan I could sense. **I don't recognize this one, but he's no demon spawn. Kill him.**

"Are you sure?" But where was the second voice? I looked around, desperate for my senses to come through for me. If there were two people who wanted to harm me, then I should be detecting both of them.

The mist was too thin to conceal anyone. Instead, a person jumped out from the trees, landing less than ten feet from me.

If I'd thought there was something wrong with Baum's eyes, they seemed normal again as soon as the man looked up at me. There were no pupils. Just too bright blue eyes, pale enough that they might look white to someone whose vision wasn't as sharp as mine. Looking at them, I had the odd feeling that they may glow in the dark.

Was he a humanoid? I hadn't read about any Inherents with eyes like that when I was researching my own powers.

"This one can detect my intent," the man said, meeting my gaze. "The other one should be easier to hit, but would it be better to get him first? He may run."

**As long as we you handle them, it's of no concern to me. I will prevent their escape.**

Instantly it became too cold for August. I couldn't see what Ecilan was doing through the trees, and I didn't have time to figure it out. The man lunged at me. As I ducked back from his swing he spun and blasted a spell at Buam, who took over the match.

"Get out! Before Ecilan traps you!" he shouted, dark aura forming around him.

 **Too late.** Ecilan laughed **You can't climb over my walls of ice.**

"Frosch."

"Yes!"

Wings sprouted from her back and I tossed her up. She looped and came back, grabbing my outstretched hand and lifting me up. As we pulled about the trees I could see a wall of ice circling us, but clearing it wouldn't be a problem. Or wouldn't have been, until Ecilan shot up to our level and began creating a ceiling too.

"Fro can make it!"

And she did. She flew out above the ceiling Ecilan was creating before he was able to seal it off.

Then ice appeared above us, creating a section of the ceiling higher than the rest as it all connected together and sealed us in. Unable to stop herself in time, Frosch crashed into the new wall and we slid down.

The landing winded me, but however unintentionally as it was, I broke Frosch's fall. She crawled off my and patted my cheek, promising to keep guard over me while I caught my breath.

Ecilan drifted around the prison he'd created as I got to my feet and limped back to where I'd left Baum. He was still there, in no worse shape than normal, having a stare down with the other one.

Ecilan noticed them too. **Siegrain, what are you doing? Get rid of the spare.**

Siegrain? Right. The thought projection that thought for itself. No wonder I had trouble detecting him. Will or not, I couldn't sense magic the same way I could something with a real soul.

Siegrain took a step back, shaking his head. "Can't."

**Can't? What do you mean, "Can't?" I'm ordering you to get rid of him.**

"You are… but…" Siegrain looked Baum up and down.

Realizing he wasn't about to be attacked again, Baum turned to look in my direction, casting a spell to create his own protective wall around Frosch and I.

"Rogue?" Frosch asked.

"It's alright. Even if Baum's protection fails, I won't let anyone hurt you."

"But what if Rogue gets hurt?"

"It's alright," I assured her. "It's alright."

 **Siegrain, we** _ **need**_ **Lucia's child for this to work. Get rid of that man.** Ecilan urged.

"No," Siegrain snapped. "I'm not killing a god on a demon's orders."

God?

"God?" Baum asked for me. He glanced at me and Frosch, then back to Siegrain, swearing. "I see. You're from that cult, then."

 **Useless! I will handle it.** Ecilan roared, and then it was unbearably cold. I held Frosch tight, protecting her as best I could from the harsh magic as frost caught in my hair and the walls of ice grew thicker, swallowing up trees and closing in on us.

 _Cut them off…_ I heard.

"Baum!" I cried over the maelstrom, "Baum! Get over here!"

He hesitated, then ran for me, fingers grazing the barrier he'd put up before ice encased him completely.

 **I need you alive,** Ecilan reminded me, **So I will allow you to breath in your prison. Until my ice kills that man you are free to wander around your enclosure. Once he is gone and his magic dispelled, you will be mine. Siegrain?**

"Yes, sir." Where was he now. Eyes scanning for the one I couldn't sense, I spotted him standing high above me.

**If you can drive your 'god' away then I will release him for you. Will you attack him?**

"No, sir."

**Then he will die here.**

"That's alright. He's come back this time. Give me eight… no… five years, and I could bring him back again."


	31. Siegrain meets his caster

Zeref was right there. Right under my feet. Just thinking about it made my heart race. Zeref…

Wasn't as strong as a lord demon. I had to remind myself of that. The world of true freedom that _he_ had wanted, that I'd been made to help lead _him_ to, may have been something Zeref could do, but I was better off trusting Ecilan. Still… Zeref, right there. How could I attack someone who I'd been created revering? Would he be alright trapped in ice like that? Ecilan wanted me 'getting rid of him' but this way… some part of me hoped he'd be fine once thawed, but mostly I was hoping reviving him would be easier if his body was intact.

I was deep in thought over what to do with the man I'd been made worshiping when Ecilan spoke for the first time since we'd trapped them.

**There are other lord demons moving in on this place. It seems one has brought humans with him as well.**

"Grisia and Genesis?"

**Yes. The other is an ally of his, but it's hard to say who it is. This one must have entered their host.**

"But Grisia's still without a body?"

**Yes.**

"Then can I ask you to handle him? If they know I'm here then Genesis must have brought someone who could dispel me, but a mist monster sounds much harder to dodge and strike from behind than any of those overconfident Inherents were." I wasn't even sure I could land any sort of hit on Grisia or Ecilan. "If it comes down to it, I can fire Etherion twice before I'm in danger of falling apart."

 **Be careful,** Ecilan ordered. **You aren't human yet, and the amulet has not merged with you the way it would a regular life form. So long as it's part of your makeup it may disappear when you are dispelled.**

"So if it looks like I'm going to die, spit it out somehow," I concluded. If I was gone it made no difference to me whether or not the demon apocalypse got fully underway, but after Ecilan had agreed to help it seemed unfair to take him down with me. "Etherion is holy magic. If I'm low enough on it for it to not keep me from noticing demonic energy in my magic makeup then I can pick the amulet out. I'll do my best to extract it before it's too late."

**Be careful all the same. Having my amulet out in front of Grisia will make it unlikely for it to reach a suitable host, and I would prefer you as an ally to being trapped in a useless body.**

I nodded and rematerialized at the bottom of his ice prison, leaning against it and waiting for Genesis to come. They wouldn't be the same ones who thought it was a good idea to lie to have me working for them, but they were working for the same beast that I'd been duped into helping. They would receive no more mercy than those bastards in the Woodsea had.

The half demon was still trying to fight his way out, but he hadn't broken Zeref's barrier yet. None of his spells had even reached the ice. If he kept at it, Ecilan would need to create more air holes. If humans needed to breath so badly then why would one waste so much oxygen? When _I_ got the privilege of breathing, I would treat each breath as if it were precious.

"-see him!" someone cried. My ears perked, eyes darting around and scanning.

"Ecilan! I don't see any magic users!"

 **They must have put weaker beings out front to sneak up on you.** Ecilan wrapped around me protectively, cool mist making me shiver. **I will kill these ones. Prepare yourself.**

So he said, but it would take a few minutes for the magic to fade from the ice he created, and until then they were a solid wall of white in my vision. I could only take a defensive stance and have a meteor spell at the ready for when I finally detected an attack. If only I had that half breed's ability to tell when someone was aiming for me…

But I didn't need it. I saw the first spell launched at me well before I even needed to dodge it. Jumping out of the way, I fired a bolt of magic and struck the woman who'd attacked me square in the chest. She shuddered and collapsed, and two more men came over her, spells and weapons at the ready.

I was knocking them back when Ecilan flew off, colliding with a haze of red above the treetops. The sudden flash of hot and cold threw me off longer than it did the humans, who were more experienced with handling temperature, and several made it to the ice by the time I had my bearings again.

No anti-mages in sight. Had they not been expecting me? Well, that only made my job easier. I lashed out, activating Meteor and zipping through their lines. Anyone unfortunate enough to be in my way was either struck at high speed or zapped with magic as I passed.

Returning to the ice I paused, intending to admire my handiwork. Instead I saw one of Grisia's spawn, hands on Ecilan's ice. His fingers glowing like hot metal as they slowly melted through his thick prison.

I took the boy out and returned to fighting off Inherents, only to discover two more half demons had gotten past me, and more people were coming at me from all sides. Most of the ice didn't matter, but if they broke through to Lucia's kid then we had a problem.

" **Do you need help, Grisia?"**

At the sound of that voice I froze. It had the same overpowering feel the Ecilan's voice did, but something about it was different. That wasn't some random demon's voice. That was _my_ voice. _His_ voice.

Scanning the crowd, I spotted _him_. _He_ stepped out easily from the masses, most of which stumbled back to make room for _him_. _His_ face was older than mine. Nothing unexpected. After years of independence I was separated enough from my caster that my appearance wouldn't change to match _his_ , and spells don't show physical signs of age.

Jellal finally decided to come see me, and all it took was for him to get possessed.

 **I will keep Ecilan busy.** Grisia rumbled. **Ceo, destroy that brat.**

 _He_ … no, Ceo nodded. **"Looks like the troublemaker of yours isn't even alive. You've been struggling with one little spell? That's rich."**

Oh, that did it. I tapped into my Etherion reserves. All I got was two shots, so they had to count. Ceo was still laughing at Grisia, at me, so he wasn't ready when I darted around him, getting as many Genesis members as I could in my line of fire before hurling my magic at him.

At the last moment he senses the danger and bolted to the side. Whatever demon magic he was using wasn't Meteor, but it was just as fast. Lightning? Wind? Likely a mixture. I couldn't risk firing on impulse again. I rushed at him, knocking him to the ground and shoving him through the dirt as I continued to fuel myself with the magic I learned from _him_.

Ceo hissed and snapped at me, grabbing my arm and sending an electrical current through my body. The shock made me lose control of my flight and I tumbled into a bush. I was up in an instant, prying charred fabric off of my otherwise unaffected body while Ceo pulled himself out of the ground.

" **I see. This little spell is backed up by some powers much larger than himself."**

"It's rude to talk about people like they're not in front of you."

" **People? You're not a person.** "

I bristled, fists clenching as I readied my second blast.

No. Not yet. He was trying to make me waste it. If he didn't know I had Etherion he couldn't have known what my limit was, but it didn't take a genius to know that a limit existed. I breathed through my teeth as I tried to calm myself, and was thrown back into a tree by another bolt of lightning.

 **The half demons!** Ecilan cried.

Lucia's kid would end up with Genesis! Hissing something much less elegant than I'd planned for if I ever did come face to face with _him_ again, I darted away, swooping in with more lethal magic than I'd used before as I targeted the bastards who dared melt Ecilan's ice. One, two, they dropped like rocks. As I reached for the third and final spawn a hand grabbed my leg and twisted, sending me diving into the dirt. Ceo landed above me and leaned over, glowing with the same aura left by Meteor.

" **Let's do this your way.** "

"Let's."

Before he had a chance to get off of me I grabbed his collar. My free hand pressed against his chest and I drew on my reserves.

Ceo's eyes widened and he tried to get off, but I wasn't letting go. I saw him draw up all his magic as well, not to attack but to make a shield just beneath the skin. Any further out and my hand would be inside his defenses.

-o-

I still wasn't used to the sensation of cold, but I had felt it enough recently so as to not be startled when I woke up surrounded by it.

Opening my eyes was hard. Had I gone over my limit? I was still thinking, so odds were good that I still existed. Stretching a hand out left me exhausted, but it was a comfort to see it, even if I'd grown so transparent that the grass behind my hand was the easier thing to see. Now was the time to make good on my promise. I felt inside myself for that amulet and drew it forward. I felt fairly stable, if not totally drained, but now if I did start to really fall apart I could expel that first. That would please Ecilan-if he was still there.

"E…ci…lan?"

**I am permitting you to rest. The blast destroyed some of my ice, but it took out the last of their fire half-breeds. I have resealed the ice with you inside. You do not need air, so I was able to seal you completely. Ceo will not rise for some time. His body his harmed, but he can heal it. Grisia, do you wish to continue our battle?**

I tried to take a deep breath while Grisia considered how to respond, but it was like they said. My lungs moved. Air came in. I didn't use it.

 **There is no point,** Grisia decided. **I have many allies, while you have only one, but the humans I brought with me cannot aide me in battle as your spell could. I will summon more of my children, and they will get the boy while your spell still recovers. By the time he and Ceo can fight again, Lucia will have come on our terms.**


	32. Erza's fiancé is in danger

Unbelievable.

"You expect me to take my eye off of you again? Do you think I don't know what you two were up to yesterday?"

Sting and Lucy both shrank back and exchanged looks of concern, as if hoping I may have been bluffing while confirming what I saw.

"Lucy, you were supposed to be here at all hours to assure Sting and Rogue's safety. Not only has Rogue gotten out on _your_ watch, but you have been _helping_ Sting sneak out."

"We were seeing if I could pick up Rogue's trail," Sting argued.

"Which is why you were half naked by the lake?"

He dipped his head and fell silent, glaring at the floor. It was like trying to get through to Natsu, but without the years of intimidation to teach him that I won any argument. I turned to fix Lucy with a look instead. She flinched and followed Sting's example, looking down and not saying another word, though at least she didn't look like she still intended to defy me.

"If I catch you two out again, then so help me I'll-"

"We need you for something else first."

I went stiff hearing that voice. Merudy was back? Then Jellal was there two. Had he seen me being firm? Did he think I looked too aggressive? Maybe he was impressed, amused even by my behavior. Maybe I just looked even less desirable than I already did.

No point in guessing. Stealing myself, I looked back to face him.

"Jellal's not here," Merudy said, which must have meant that my worry was written all over my face. "That's why we need your help."

"Was he arrested? News hasn't been traveling since Genesis destroyed the broadcast stations, but it seems like the Rune Knights would have mentioned… is it alright for you to be here?"

Merudy nodded. "They don't know what I look like anymore. He wasn't arrested-that we know of-but I was hoping you might have heard _something_ about him. Any sightings, or maybe if he'd come back here…" She trailed off, looking around as she realized just how many knights were stationed in the guild and that she needed to be talking quieter.

"No. What happened?"

"Oh, nothing really," she dismissed, attention still on the guards. "He's just about to be bumped up a few spots on the most wanted list."

I nodded. "I thought that might be it. We wanted to warn you about Siegrain, but we haven't been able to sneak a message out."

Merudy looked back at me, baffled. "Siegrain? Who?"

"Jellal's thought projection."

"Oh…" she shrugged. "I knew he'd named it something. I wasn't too involved in the operation involving him. No, he hasn't been able to get that spell to work for years."

"Siegrain was probably running around on his own for some time then," I thought aloud, but even as I spoke something felt wrong. Siegrain would definitely cause trouble for Jellal, especially with everyone on high alert for Genesis and him throwing his lot in with a lord demon, but if Merudy was coming for help with the spell than she wouldn't have been so dismissive of it. "What is this about again?"

"One of the lord demons got loose. They're going to be blaming it all on Jellal."

I nodded. "Ecilan. The lord ice demon."

"Storm. Ceo. Is Ecilan out too?"

Ah. There was the issue. "I think we might be discussing different Jellal related problems."

She winced. "It seems so."

I looked around. Sting was sidling towards his room while Lucy did her best to look innocent and not glance his way. I'd be mad, but I didn't have time for that just then. "Let's go talk in the storage room. It's fairly private in there. Sting, this concerns lord demons, so you may want to hear it. Lucy, we may need you acting as translator."

Sting didn't even try to hide his disappointment as he walked the rest of the way to his room. Lucy shrugged and followed him.

Once the door was shut and locked and the window checked for eavesdroppers I turned to Merudy and began to explain what had happened, how Siegrain had come posing as Jellal, how he'd tricked us into leading him to Ecilan's seal, how he'd explained his birth and how he and his Etherion were now backing Ecilan.

Merudy listened, nodding occasionally or stopping me to ask for more details. We didn't have much. None of us had been paying close attention to Siegrain's behavior. All we could tell her was to be on the lookout for someone who looked like Jellal, but had blue eyes and no clear pupils.

"He might have looked younger than Jellal is," I added, "but I was so hung up on the sunglasses that I didn't pay attention to much else."

Merudy nodded. "It wouldn't be impossible for Jellal to do something absurd, but sunglasses are pushing it. So there are two people with his face causing trouble. This is almost twice as bad."

"Almost?" I recalled her mention of Ceo. "What were you coming here concerned about?"

"Well, long story short… even if you have Sting safe and Siegrain can't act as a host body… we still have a demon who's successfully possessed someone."

I blocked out any story I'd heard about what happened when you became possessed and took a deep, calming breath. Then three more. "I think we might need to hear the long version."

-o-

Merudy didn't know exactly how Jellal had been abducted, but she could give a lot of details. They'd been trying to find an amulet before Genesis. Jellal had somehow been caught after finding it. They'd held him with the intent of using him as a host. Merudy had tried to create a diversion when she was spotted, but the amulet had been uncovered as a result. When she and Ultear were able to loop back around to where they'd seen Jellal he was under Ceo's control and giving orders to everyone who hadn't been beaten by the two girls.

"So even if Siegrain has some features that could distinguish him from Jellal, there's someone who looks _exactly_ like Jellal working with Genesis too," she concluded.

"I see. Lucy, Sting, you two's punishment will have to wait. I need to go get Jellal back."

"Do you want Gray?" Lucy asked.

Not even protesting. Sting was already looking at the window.

"Maybe he should stay here and keep an eye on you two…"

"We could come along," Lucy suggested. "My companion is supposed to be handling this disaster with the lord demons anyway. Well… he's supposed to be handling the part concerning Rogue, but all three lord demons should be targeting him, so at the moment following them is our best bet for finding him."

"And Sting?"

"Sting can come too. Gray can help him again if we get too close to Grisia."

Sting saw the same flaw in Lucy's plan that I did. "Can Gray keep Grisia away too, or am I just handing myself over to him?" he asked.

"Gray probably can't…" Lucy admitted, "but _he_ -" I could only assume she was gesturing to her ghost friend "-has! Twice! He kept Grisia distracted while we escaped the guild and he kept him at bay once since… Oh. He says he also got you out of their when you didn't notice. Something about taking your clothes." Lucy turned pink as she said that. I couldn't blame her. What was Sting doing naked in Grisia's line of sight?

Sting seemed to recognize the incident, because he thought about it for a moment then nodded. "Alright. If 'your companion' can protect me than I'll give it a shot. I'm worried about Rogue."

"I'd like a bit more assurance," I said, looking to Merudy for support.

"I have _no_ idea what you guys are talking about," she declared.

"Siegrain," Lucy told me. "He's working for Ecilan, who was an enemy of Grisia's. Grisia even placed that seal requiring his magic to break-the one that took Natsu out-so Ecilan has all the more reason not to want Grisia to become more powerful. All the lord demons should be tailing Rogue, so if we're careful we can make sure to be near him if Grisia spots us. He'll want to keep Sting away from Grisia no matter what."

From his face it was clear that Sting had a few more ideas of what 'no matter what' could be, but he didn't object, and it did seem like a good bet. There was the risk of Ecilan killing Sting to prevent possession, but from Levy and Lucy's research it sounded like an amulet would, after a few days, be absorbed by the next closest person. Contact wasn't a necessity after the lord demon had been released. Ecilan didn't stand to gain much beyond a few days time, and would lose track of who the host for Grisia was. He may take Sting captive, but Sting was almost safer then, if Ecilan could take on Grisia and had an Etherion using nut with him.

"You're sure of this?" I asked Lucy.

She nodded. "My companion and the people he's working for both insist that Ecilan will try to keep Sting from Grisia, although the higher ups aren't thrilled with the idea." Whoever the higher ups were.

"They can tell you how the lord demons will behave. They can't just pinpoint Rogue for you, can they?" I asked hopefully.

She froze, a look of realization on her face, and looked to the air next to her. A moment passed, then he shook her head, looking as disappointed as I felt. "He says that some strange magic is blocking their ability to track Rogue. They have a general idea of where he is, but they want Naaaa... My companion to go pinpoint Rogue himself, so I'd need to go along anyway. Sting can stay, but his best protection won't be here."

Sting shuffled and looked to me and Merudy for a decision. I looked to her, but she still looked lost. "If Lucy says it will be safe… I suppose we should bring Sting…"


	33. Lucy is proven wrong

We'd only been on the road for a day when we heard about the massive ice formation that had appeared south of Magnolia. Even for winter that would be weird, but mid-August it took more magic than most people could call forth to maintain something like that. Gray might be able to pull it off for a few hours, but to leave it out in the open for days took something much stronger than a human. We had our first lead to Ecilan.

Sting insisted on going by foot. Our compromise was two hours by train and one day by foot, since the formation was a ways from the closest station. That likely only seemed like a good deal to Sting since he didn't bother to look and see that we were insisting on as much train time as we could possibly get.

Gray, Erza, Merudy and Ultear all stood protectively around him as he stumbled off the train, but neither Natsu nor Trisiel, who had decided to stick close to use since we moved Sting outside the protection of the guild, seemed concerned.

"This is in the direction of the magic anomaly that is preventing us from tracking Rogue," Trisiel informed me while the others tried various remedies they made up on the spot to try and speed up Sting's recovery. Erza's idea to spin him… had the expected result.

While Sting took everyone's attention by crawling to the edge of to the tracks and showing them what he'd had for lunch, I said, "So they're likely still near wherever Ecilan was. Do you think Rogue was caught?"

Trisiel shook his head. "If he were, then they would have summoned Lucia by now. Whatever is keeping us from tracking him must be keeping him safe too. I can sense large quantities of demonic energy from our area of destination. Ecilan isn't the only one who's been in that area for some time."

"So we need to move fast," I said, louder, making sure the others would here. "The lord demons have had a lot of time to try and get to him."

"Yes, and no protection lasts forever," Trisiel replied before striding off in the direction the newly spawned glacier was said to have come from.

I ran after him, the others following me. For a while he was certain of which direction he took us, but after we crossed into what he called 'the black space' (which looked as bright and colorful as everything else so he must have meant the area where he couldn't detect anything) he began to wander aimlessly. We split up, wandering through the woods trying to find something and meeting back up whenever we were close to report on our complete lack of luck.

After what must have been hours, Natsu spotted something. We gathered the others up and ran to get a closer look at the glacier Natsu had found.

It really was unnatural. Clear and firm just like ice shouldn't be in the summer. You could see all the way through it, so you could see a space near the center where Rogue was trapped inside a black cage of magic, and where a boy was frozen not too far from him.

"Is that what's been keeping you from spotting him?" I asked, pointing to the cage.

Trisiel followed my finger to the other boy and nodded.

Sting came out from the brush and saw his friend in the ice while I tried to figure out where I'd seen that boy before. I was startled out of my thoughts by him pounding on the ice and shouting "Rogue!"

Rogue jumped up and looked around, seeing us and waving half-heartedly. How long had he been trapped there? The glacier had been around at least for a few days. If he'd been in it from the start… but then why didn't Ecilan have him?

"That cage must be meant to keep demons out," Erza decided, yanking Sting back and covering his mouth before he could draw any more attention to us. Gray and Merudy were already trying to ward off Genesis members who saw us.

Despite Sting's desperate efforts to reach the ice again, Rogue seemed not to care what we were up to anymore, looking away and gazing off into the distance.

**Who's there?**

"Friends of Lucia's kid?" a muffled voice replied

Lucia's kid? As in the ruler of the lord demons Lucia's kid? I looked to Trisiel, who's jaw was set as he glared over at Ecilan and Siegrain.

That was an odd sight. Siegrain himself was sealed inside ice the same as Rogue, though while most of the ice covered grass and trees, his portion of the glacier dipped into a crater. His image wavered a bit as he leaned over and inspected us. "Oh. Hey, that one has the same energy coming from him as the amulets do."

 **What?** Grisia's voice boomed.

Sting dropped like a rock, clutching his stomach as red mist seeped through the trees. Where had he come from? I looked to Natsu and Trisiel for an explanation.

"We already can't tell much thanks to that boy who was with Rogue. Grisia and Ecilan are opposites. Their powers cancel out many of one another's secondary abilities."

"But Sting-"

"Has no reason to be affected by Ecilan, though if he's at a distance the ice demon can block out the energy near him that might hurt your friend." Then he said something unangelic before adding, "We had no way of knowing he was upon us."

"Sting's overheating again," Erza reported, trading off with Gray. She took out an attacking humanoid while he iced the blond down.

Now Rogue wasn't pretending not to be interested. He banged against his cage and shouted for them to stop. Leave Sting alone. He's go with them. He'd go with them if they didn't hurt Sting.

 **Ah… Ceo, get up. This is the one I've been needing,** Grisia ordered, red mist circling around us. **They brought an angel with them. Ceo, can you stand yet?**

" **Not quite."** Erza recognized Ceo's voice before me, gasping first at it, then at the sight of Jellal, skin so covered in raw patches that it looked like a layer had been peeled off of him. He struggled to his feet, leaning against a tree as he watched us. **"You want the blond? He looks weak."**

 **The pot calling the kettle black.** Grisia responded. **All human bodies are frail, Ceo. Did you forget that. Distract those mortals while I get the angel out of the way and school my brat.**

 **Not on my watch,** Ecilan snarled.

Trisiel backed up to stand guard over Sting as pale blue mist rushed to meet red. Natsu moved to follow, but was directed to Rogue instead. I giggled at the sight of him running through the ice, imagining him running into objects after he was returned to his body. Erza took this as a sign that I wasn't taking what was happening seriously and grabbed my top, throwing me out into the fray to deal with Genesis.

"I need to try and get through to Jellal!" she told me before running off.

"I'd like a shot at that too," Merudy grumbled, but held her ground.

Summoning three spirits to ward off the increasing number of Inherents coming at us took a lot of focus, so I didn't see how Erza's attempts to snap Jellal out of his possession went. I could only imagine it went as well as it had the last time she'd heard he was possessed and tired to free him, since a bolt of lightning startled everyone out of what they were doing as it raced across the battlefield. I looked back just in time to see it arc around Grisia and cut through Ecilan.

The lord demon hissed and cursed, mist shrinking in on itself as more lightning came it's way. Grisia stopped messing around with him and came down, enveloping Trisiel. We needed Ecilan keeping him at bay! How hard could it be to stop Ceo from attacking Ecilan when he was in a damaged human body? Whatever I did to Jellal's body in order to fix this, I'd have to apologize to Jellal for it later!

Except with winds that put Erigor's wall to shame protectively rushing around Jellal and Ceo, it didn't look like I could do much to stop him. Or maybe…

"Open, gate of the virgin! Virgo!"

"Princess?" Virgo asked as she appeared. "Am I going to be punished?"

"There!" I pointed to Ceo and his miniature tornado. "I need to get inside of that!"

Virgo looked back and nodded before diving into the ground.

 **Siegrain!** Ecilain suddenly roared. **Etherion! Before he can take over Sting!**

All eyes on him, Siegrain looked around, looked to the ground, then shook his head. "I haven't had enough time to recover! If I fire now, I'll dispel!"

**The amulet-**

"I can't remove it in time to stop him."

Ecilan snarled and tried to attack Grisia again, who was now creeping around my friends. Where had Trisiel… Focus! If I could stop Ceo, Ecilan would protect Sting.

"Princess, I've completed a tunnel."

"Alright!" With a swipe of my keys, I forced closure on her, Aries, and Scorpio, gesturing for Loke to come with me. Usually I'd give them a farewell, but I was running low on energy and time.

Why had Virgo dug so deep. I panted, trying to crawl through her tunnel as fast as I could. If Ceo's assault on Ecilan wasn't stopped in time…

"Sorry for this," Loke said hastily as he crawled right over me, launching up through the tunnel. I heard something collide and picked up the pace. I couldn't let one of my spirits be harmed on top of leading Sting right to Grisia.

I came out of the tunnel and saw Ceo on the ground, struggling to get up and clutching his stomach. Loke stood over him, another attack readied if he managed to get back up. There was only so much glory in taking down someone who was already injured, but I'd have to give Loke praise when I had the time for stopping a lord demon.

"Ecilan!" Siegrain shouted.

**Right. Grisia, without your pathetic friend you won't-**

" **Too late,"** Sting, no, Grisia laughed. Too late.

Too late…

Sting…

"Loke! Stop him before-ah…" I fell.

Loke reached out and caught me, setting me gently in the grass before disappearing. So I was out of magic. That's what I got for having four spirits out at once. Even with Second Origin that was pushing my limit.

I could only watch as Grisia, now in Sting's body, effortlessly swatted Ecilan aside. He had a body from our world. He was on our plain now. He was at full power.

He was putting Sting's life at risk.

"Stop," I begged. "Please…"

Grisia laughed. **"Or what? The angel already ran away. If you think your ghost friend can threaten me with the power I passed on to him, then I hate to tell you this, but it won't work. I'm going to take Lucia's child now. You can't stop me."**

"Please. Those two… care a lot about one another. If you used Sting… to hurt Rogue…"

Grisia just laughed.

It was getting hot. That ice looked so inviting now. Or would have, if it weren't melting. Siegrain disappeared from his sanctuary and reappeared some odd feet away as Grisia strolled towards Rogue. Towards Lucia's son. Ice turning to steam as he got within several feet of it.

Natsu hissed Zeref's name as the other boy trapped in the ice thawed. He fell to the ground, blinking and looking up at Grisia in confusion.

" **You said it would take some time for Lucia to appear after I threatened his son, didn't you?"** Grisia asked Zeref.

Zeref! As if this couldn't get any worse!

Zeref stood, ringing out the cloth draped over him as he nodded and said, "Yes. I believe I said that."

"You know him?" Rogue snarled.

Another nod. "I told you, I know your father. He likes to pester me to look after all the kids he leaves scattered around," Zeref replied.

Before anyone had a chance to respond to Zeref's words, he dove into Rogue's cage, grabbing him before releasing a wave of black magic that completely engulfed the ice, fanning out and stretching almost to my fingertips. When the darkness dispersed they were both gone. So was all the grass that had been there. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn't been able to follow them.

Grisia cursed, muttering plans for how to punish 'that wannabe brat' as he looked around for any signs of where they might have gone.

"Looks like you're out of luck," Siegrain snickered.

" **Inhuman brat!"** Grisia shrieked, hurling a wall of fire at Siegrain. The spell made a half-hearted effort to brace himself. We'd seen how he recovered. Damage wasn't a concern for him.

Or maybe it was. When the fire died out I could see Siegrain looking down at his hands, staring stupidly at the angry red burn marks that hadn't fade with the fire.

 **You do not harm my host!** Ecilan snarled, engulfing Grisia in his mist again.

Once again, Grisia knocked Ecilan away. Flames engulfed his, engulfed Sting's body and raced out to reach us, the lord demon melting into them and reappearing right before my companions. **"It looks like I didn't get to take your friend after all. But you know, I have another friend my men have track down who's in need of a body. If you don't want me taking Lucia's child, maybe you have another friend I could use."**

"No!" Natsu shrieked, running at him with his sword spewing fire. Grisia cast him an amused glance as the flames washed harmlessly around him again and again, looking back at Erza, Gray, and Merudy as Natsu continued to attack.

" **Let me see… Well, I must admit that I'm mad at Ecilan. Allowing an enemy who could keep Lucia from me so close to his child... What was he thinking? I suppose then, that it would be appropriate to take the one with ice magic. Ceo? Can you get up?"**

Ceo grunted and rose to his feet again.

" **Good. Meet me at Elmairy's seal.** "

A nod, then wind had wrapped around him and he lifted himself from the woods.

"Jellal!" Erza cried, attention no longer where it needed to be. She and Merudy both stood, moving to chase after him.

Neither was there to stop Grisia from grabbing Gray and melting into the fire once more.


	34. Gray is as good as dead

No breath was wasted trying to get through to Sting. Rogue might have been able to do it, but I hadn't been close enough to him to think I could bring him back to his senses while he was under Grisia's control. My arm hurt. Natsu was beyond recovery. Two lord demons were at full power. When Grisia slung me over his shoulder I didn't even bother resisting. I let myself sleep the whole time he traveled with me. I shut my eyes in one forest and woke up in another.

Grisia didn't say anything when I woke up, aside from to glance at me. It was strange to think of him as Grisia. Jellal's body had been so damaged when I saw him that you could easily pretend it was someone else, but there was no mistaking Sting's body, Sting's eyes casting me a look of mild interest before turning back to our path.

"Are we close?" I asked when he kept walking.

Grisia ignored me.

"Ah… fine. Whichever demon your giving me to, let him know to go light with my arm for a week or two. It's almost healed, but if got damaged badly a while back and it's not quite ready for any heavy duty work still. If you guys do lose before I get killed by this, I'd like it to still be of use when I get it back."

" **Elmairy can heal his own wounds faster than the rest of us."**

"Is that so…?" At least I wouldn't end up looking like Jellal. Maybe I should have been relieved to hear the implication of that statement, that Jellal would heal eventually, but I was being held captive by a lord demon. It wasn't a situation that lent to caring for others wellbeings.

That was the last and only effort I made to converse. Did I think a lord demon was going to show mercy on me? Grisia did speak one other time, though. When we passed from forest into a small clearing I noticed tattered fabric everywhere, but wouldn't have asked even if he hadn't told me.

" **I sent a number of men here to help find Elmairy. They'd only just managed when the living spell they rescued turned on them."**

Siegrain? "You don't say."

" **I can only wonder where that pest came from."**

From Ceo's host. I didn't feel like telling him. If Jellal was his ally right now… but then who knew how strong alliances were between lord demons. They probably went to war over who ate the last cup of pudding.

When I didn't say anything more, Grisia went silent again as he carried me through the Genesis graveyard and the forest beyond it.

At some point I did recognize that I was in the Woodsea, but I don't know what I'd have done with that information. I could have run until I was out of the forest, but I didn't have too many landmarks to orient myself from there. At least not until we came across a familiar depression in the earth.

Grisia didn't hesitate to jump over the ledge into the old ruins where Jellal had once been brought back from near death. The landing jostled me and forced me to break my resolution not to make any more noise. While I was still gasping from the pain of having my stomach slammed against his shoulder by gravity, Grisia strolled into the cave Natsu had rescued Wendy from. I'd never seen it myself, but the hole in it looked much more recent that the other fixtures. Since Grisia jumped down that as well, it might have explained why Elmairy's seal hadn't been chanced upon during the mess with Nirvana.

When we got down there he tossed me aside. I didn't see and easy way out anyway. Maybe stairs of ice, but any Ice Make scenario I imagined ended with the lord fire demon melting whatever I tried to use to escape.

Something hit the back of my head while I looked for anything I could use. It didn't register until I'd already picked it up and examined it that I realized I was holding a lord demon's amulet.

" **Lose that and you won't have either of your arms."**

As if I had anywhere to hide it. The room we'd fallen into had no nooks or cranes that I could slip it into. In fact, the far side of the room and the tunnel it transformed into were both smooth.

I got to my feet and followed Grisia, wondering why Lucia had thought it was alright to bring Sting along as he led me down the tunnel and into another room. This one was also smooth, this one tiled. With barely and light coming in it was hard to tell, but the stone seemed lighter.

Grisia gestured to the far side, to a giant tablet of lighter stone. **"The amulet."**

Then it hit me. What was I _thinking_? I was going along with him while he tried to have me possessed by a lord demon. I almost told him no, but decided I could do something better with my sudden defiance. I took two steps toward the seal, then spun.

"Ice Make: Lance!" Two handed. It hurt to move my still healing bone, but I couldn't be half assing it against a lord demon.

It didn't matter. With a casual swipe of his hand Grisia dissolved my attack in a wave of fire. A wave of fire that kept rushing towards me. Without thinking I put my arms up in front of me to block.

It stopped before my face, but not by much. My arm hurt, throbbing so powerfully that my shoulder went numb from pain pulsing up it. It was no brighter i the room than it had been before his attack, but I could see how dark my charred arm had become. At least the other looked fairly normal. It had probably only turned bright red.

" **Fine. We do this the hard way,"** Grisia snarled.

I screamed in pain when he grabbed my black arm, dragging me up to Elmairy's seal. When I still didn't cooperate he grabbed the other arm, pressing the amulet into my hand so hard I thought he'd break the bone on that side to. As it was he slammed my hand against the seal so hard my whole body seemed to vibrate.

Grisia let me step back as the stone cracked. I couldn't see mist, but I felt the amulet merging with me, and from that I felt something… something seeming to rip me apart from the inside out. What was Elmairy the lord demon of? Whatever it was, it was making the mark that now glowed on my stomach hurt.

Oh. I wasn't wearing a shirt. When did that happen?

Never mind. It hurt. I felt twice as bad for Sting if he had to put up with anything like this when he overheated. I stepped further back, clutching my stomach with my less burnt arm to try and ease the pain in it.

" **Welcome back,"** Grisia said.

 **Pleased to be here,** another voice said. **I take it that's my new body? Move him. I can't summon any strength surrounded by so much salt.**

Salt? Well, I wasn't opposed to moving further from the room. I stumbled away, still reeling from pain while Grisia hung back to apologize for not having stripped the salt stone walls away beforehand, and telling Elmairy about how long it had taken him to work any magic when he'd been summoned in the middle of a lake.

It hurt like hell, but away from two lord demons part of me that wasn't focused on the pain realized that while they were both still in the salt room was my best chance to escape.

Both hands were burnt, but the less damaged of the two could still be used to create a flimsy ice ladder for me to climb awkwardly up.

Back on the first floor of the cave, with light spilling in, I took stock. Black arm. Red arm. Green stomach markings. In short: Bad news. I knew where I was from there. I knew which direction to go when I made a run for it.

-o-

It was only a few minutes before I heard the lord demons. They alternated between conversing about whatever they felt and plotting what to do when they caught me. I ran much fasted when they discussed how Elmairy could manage just fine if they skinned me before giving him my body. The longer I ran the more they wanted to harm me, so the harder I tried to keep going. Soon I had a stitch in my side to add to the burnt arms, the painful mark, the sore feet, and the aching lungs, but they hadn't caught up yet and I wasn't going to let them.

I lost ground after dark. Lord demons must come with night vision, because I was the only one who ever crashed into anything as I ran for my life. I tried not to think too hard about how late it was, how long I must have been going for. I'd probably need physical therapy when this was over, to try and help me recover from whatever strain I was putting on myself for going all out for so long. If they weren't discussing ways to vivisect me by that point I'd have given in and let Elmairy have me.

Girisia had to have similar physical limitations to me, and less motivation. At some point the pain in my stomach eased, shrinking down to a vague feeling of something brushing up against my insides. It would twinge from time to time, so I doubted Elmairy was too far behind. Nonetheless, I allowed myself to slow to a jog.

My legs ached. My arms ached. My chest ached. I just wanted to pass out. Maybe If I was unconscious when they found me, they'd give up on torture.

No. Not likely.

When I reached the nearest town, by chance, there was a train getting ready to leave. It wasn't going the direction I came from, so I got on. Not legally. Erza had been holding the money we brought for the trip and I had no means of borrowing cash for a ticket from her. While they loaded up I climbed onto the top and lay down to keep from being noticed until they pulled out of the station.

I almost fell asleep up there, but the top of a train isn't the safest place to rest. I crawled to a more secure nook to keep from being thrown off in the event of sudden stops and watched the distance for any sort of oddly colored mist. The feeling in my stomach has almost completely settled into the barest of pressures, so I was probably a safe distance, but I kept watch all the same.

Elmairy never showed up in the horizon, but the morning sun did. I decided that my hiding spot was secure enough, train top or not, and let myself nap for a few minutes.

The train pulling into a station woke me up. I crawled over and off, slipping into nearby brush while it boarded and left.

What an oddly familiar place to end up. This is where we took Sting when we were running from Grisia. Could Elmairy find me here? Someone _had_ managed to catch Rogue. I didn't have money for a hotel room anyway.

By noon I had proof that I hadn't chanced into a safe haven. The mark began to ache again, not to the point that I felt it would rip me apart, but noticeably worse than that morning. He was getting closer.

Where could I go from there? I was still sore and tired and hungry to boot. I didn't have the strength to keep running. Tired and miserable, I settled for trying to hide. I remembered seeing plenty of small caves and shallow areas in the water. That would be an odd enough location that _maybe_ I could go unnoticed there.

With my hazy, sleepy brain, I assumed my hiding spot was already succeeding when the feeling of Elmairy's presence lightened. It was a few minutes of wading deeper into water, not focused enough to actually find a spot to hide, that I realized hiding couldn't be influencing it that much.

But why would standing waist deep in water effect how strongly Elmairy… Salt! I was waste deep in salt water! Hadn't Lucy said that Sting didn't notice Grisia when he was swimming? Hadn't Grisia said he had no strength in the lake he'd been freed in? The beach was a safe haven after all!

I would have fallen to my knees and celebrated if I hadn't thought that would put my nose underwater. As it was, I found myself crying from sheer relief. As long as I stayed by the ocean he couldn't get me. Even if the salt stung my probably crippled arm, even if I still had no money for food or shelter, even if I had no idea how to contact my guild, I was safe. I could worry about all that later. For now, I was going a little deeper in. Who knew if he could still fly up to me. I wanted to be certain that I could dive underwater and not have to worry. I'd spent the past twenty four hours either in demons' hands or running like mad. I needed as much security as I could get.

I kept reminding myself that I was safe right up until a scaled hand covered my mouth and pulled me under


	35. Sting's Mother is charitable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was proof reading this a while back, and didn't finish checking the whole chapter for errors before I needed to go do something else. To mark my place, I keyboard mashed myself a paragraph of gibberish. Then I forgot I didn't actually finish proofreading and posted the chapter with that gibberish still there. No one told me. I just noticed it on my own later.

She was at it again. Even though I'd scolded her. Even though I'd demanded she stay out of my territory. She'd gone and grabbed the same boy as before.

I zipped around her, twisting the tides as I circled through the water and knocking the young brat out deeper into the sea. Several humans who'd gathered at the water's edge fell, some getting swept out and some scrambling back. If they wanted to stage a rescue I wouldn't stop them. It was annoying to have bloated corpses drifting around my home, so they'd save me the trouble of clearing bodies out myself.

The girl's grip on her prey slackened as he steadied herself, but then she clasped her hands around his neck. It isn't my nature to care what happens to humans. This one wasn't even that good looking. I wanted to question this one, though.

"You were warned to stay off my territory," I hissed.

"You don't make good use of it. So many humans wander into the water on their own, and you let them come back out." The girl shrugged. "This one was even out in a hunting boat."

"He was," I agreed. "Let him go. I will take care of him."

The girl looked back and forth between us, considering it a minute. When she let go of the boy I thought she may have meant to hand him over, but then she turned, swatting at me with her tail and sending me spinning with the powerful current that followed her attack.

All she had going for her was the element of surprise! She must have barely been an adult. She thought she could take me on? What a riot.

I held out my hands, letting magic swirl around them and compress the water around me into tight orbs. It wasn't flashy, but it was powerful, and if she didn't take warnings than she needed a real scare. Besides, not being flashy was an advantage when you just wanted to harm. No one dodges a bland looking ball of water shooting towards them until it knocks them to the sea floor and bruises their insides.

While the girl recovered I dragged her prey and swam him up to the surface, holding him higher above the water than I dared go while he coughed and gasped.

"Taking care of him," the girl scoffed before swimming off.

Once the boy had caught his breath I pulled him back under, holding him close and kicking hard so we could get to my home before he ran out of breath again. I have several small caves dotting the water's edge. Usually there's no struggle to hold onto space so close to land. Few siren have any desire to see humans, and most who do prefer to see them by wrecking large ships, rather than posing as them and sneaking on land for short hour spurts.

This particular cave opened up both to the sea and the land, but the land passage too small for most creatures to crawl through. It did, however, allow for air to come in. It seemed like a good spot too hold a human boy until I'd gotten all I wanted from him.

He had to do all that coughing and gasping again, but he watched me warily even while he seemed helpless. He watched me a lot less warily as I pulled myself up, activating my human camouflage and letting my scales even out into skin. The tail splitting into legs had bothered me for years. There was a certain safety in not having legs that could easily be split apart.

He was _really_ staring. "Is something the matter?"

"You… uh… don't have a shirt."

And? "Neither do you."

"B-b-but I have pants!" the boy insisted.

Pants? I looked at the odd black fabric clinging to his legs. Why should I have something like that? What an odd boy.

"Here," he mumbled, pulling the pants off. Was he putting us on even ground? To my surprise he had a second pair of pants under the first, though these barely came down to his knees. Did all humans need so many layers? I could have sworn they only wore one thing when they came up to my shore. "P-put these on."

If he insisted. It was nice to cover my hips anyway. I thought he'd be fine if I put them on, but he wanted more, holding his arms out over his chest and saying, "Cover yourself this way."

He wanted me hiding my chest? I looked down at it, confused as to what the problem could possibly be. Did it not look human? But when I grasped and inspected it, the whole thing looked like what I always saw when girls lost their tops in the water.

"Please!"

"Fine. Fine." I grudgingly covered my perfectly normal chest. "Now you."

"But I'm not…" he threw his hands up in surrender then hid his own chest with his arms. I'd never seen a boy cover his chest before, but if you were apparently supposed to do that. "Thank you for saving me. Is there some way I could leave?"

I nodded, taking the time to examine him myself now that he wasn't looking so closely at me. He had a demon's mark on him. Had he come into the water to escape them? My Runic was rusty, but it looked like it was Elmairy's name wrapped around his naval. So he'd fled from the plant demon by seeking salt. Smart boy.

"How?"

"How what?"

"I need to get out of here."

"You'll be safe here," I assure him. "Elmairy wouldn't go through salt water to get out of here, and even if he does find the above sea entrance, only lizards can get through it, so he couldn't get you out from that passage. A lord demon would destroy land with weak magic rather than wait in a powerful body. They're idiots that way."

The boy cocked his head. "I heard the humanoids supported them."

"There is no lord demon for the sea. Who would we turn to them for favors?"

He scowled. "But you all started drowning people."

"We've always done that," I told him. "In any case, we heard others were attacking humans. The bitter ones decided now was a good time to crash all the ships we could."

"Bitter? Why…" he shook his head. "Never mind that. How am I supposed to stay in a barren cave for… for… who knows how long. I might be marked as his host for the rest of my life!"

"I can bring you food," I dismissed. "But since you owe me your life, you're asking an awful lot more."

"You're the one who trapped me here!"

"Where you'll be safe." What luck that I could pass it off as that. "Now," I leaned over, pressing my hands against the cave floor and getting my face close to his like I always did when I wanted a human boy's to do something for me. "I'd be happy to help if only you could answer a few questions for me."

He gulped, looking at my chest again and nodding. "W-what do you want to know?"

"That siren from earlier, she's grabbed you before, right? And another siren saved you that time."

" _Sting_ saved me," the boy insisted.

"Is that his name? The blond half-blood?"

"Half…" he scowled. "Half what?"

I sighed in exasperation. The tan humans who spent all their time at the beach asked dumb questions, but the ones who only came occasionally didn't usually need so much explanation. "Half siren. Don't think I don't keep an eye on the hunting boats. I saw a human spend much too much time as a human to be a full blooded siren. He couldn't have been hiding any gills because he only had cloth where you do. But then when he dove down to get you away from that other siren, he changed into one of us."

The boy sat back, uncovering his own chest as he thought about what I said. "Sting is part siren? That… I had heard he went to swim often… it's possible. Maybe… I'd have to ask him."

"Well, now I'm asking you. That boy's name was Sting? Do you know who is father was?"

"Weisslogia. A dragon."

"A… a dragon?" He hadn't looked part dragon at all! Water dragons could look somewhat aquatic, sure but… but could a dragon even mate with a human? I knew firsthand that a human could mate with a siren but…

"Well, that's who raised him, at least. I don't think he knows who his real parents were. And… uh… Male siren are uncommon, right? I don't think… maybe if competition is fierce but… if this is about mating-"

"No!" I cried, face turning red. "That's… Do you have any idea how old I am?"

"You don't look old," he told me, but he wasn't looking me in the eye when he said that. He wasn't even looking up high enough to see my face! What a phony compliment. "So it wouldn't even matter if he wasn't completely siren. Why do you care then?"

I sighed. "It wouldn't matter how human he was even if I were young enough. If he's a half-breed, that means we can mate with humans regardless, doesn't it."

He mumbled something about mixed races being infertile, but that was Sting's problem, not mine. "But why do you care?"

"He looked…" I thought about it for a moment. Gesturing to a few body parts that had looked familiar to me when I saw them, I said "He looked like a human I saw once. Once who very much wanted to be with other siren."

"There are people like that?"

"There are siren who like to be with humans too."

"Have you ever-"

"Yes."

"So… there's someone on land who you like."

"No."

He studied me, trying to see if I was being honest. If I looked like someone who would gladly lay down for any man. I was grateful when he didn't press. There are some traumas you don't want to recall.

"In any case… I know of a siren some years ago who had an odd baby. He looked perfectly human, and he couldn't breathe, but when she tried to leave him in a safe place above the surface, where she could leave him and know nothing would get him, and where she could climb out and try to care for him as he needed, she found it too difficult to go through all the special care he required, even though she put so much work into claiming all the territory by land just for that baby. I… heard… that when it got to be too much, she brought him inland and left him at the door of that man who was so fascinated with siren."

"And that man wasn't too keen on babies," the boy said, guessing the end of the story.

I nodded. "When I went to the human town some time later to see if I could find that baby, I heard that a little boy who looked like that child had been carried out by that man into the woods and wasn't seen again."

The memory made my throat clench. Even if I'd never been desperate enough to want a human mate, I _wasn't_ pretty enough to attract a siren.

The boy looked around the cave, noticing finally how secure it was. How the rock rose up and created a small, natural wall between the land and water that a small child might have trouble climbing over. Then he took a good look at me and nodded. "Sting's possessed," he said. "He was the one who unsealed the first lord demon. By accident, I think."

"Is that so…" How unfortunate, but I hadn't known him too well, and if not all the lord demons were loose then I couldn't imagine them making it far. "Well, I don't want to know what the demon's doing. Tell me what Sting was up to before then. Why were you two in a hunting boat?"

The boy made himself comfortable, and eventually stopped staring, as he started telling me what he could about Sting. How they'd come out to the beach fleeing Grisia, the job, the way he and his friend had avoided the boat because they fell ill in humans' vehicles. The time a friend of theirs was nearly drowned by a siren when alone with him and how he must have saved that girl too. His old guild. His new guild. His dead cat. The joy he got from fighting. It sounded like he was happy-aside from the possession. Even if Grisia did kill him, he'd lived a much nicer life than he would have in a cave.

My mind drifted to his ability to shift forms. How long had he been able to do that? If he were little when he gained that ability… if it had only been a few years…

He liked it on land. I liked the freedom I had. It had worked out.

The boy napped for a bit after telling me what he could. From what he'd mentioned of his own adventures it seemed like he needed the sleep. I let him rest a few hours while thinking of what to do. I ought to do something for Sting. The safest bet for the lord demons to be stopped before Grisia killed him would be if as few lord demons as possible came into power, meaning I ought to protect this boy.

Removing the pants he'd lent me, I swam down and gathered up seaweed. Caught a fish. Collected oysters. Things a human might eat. The boy was awake when I brought them back, but seamed hesitant to eat.

"We usually cook food…"

"Cook?"

"With fire."

"I don't think you could get a fire going in here," I told him. "Just eat it."

He waited a few more hours before doing so, grimacing with each bite as if the fish was still flopping around in his mouth. When he finished he asked, "Are you going to come back up."

I shook my head, content treading water. I'd gone long enough without it for one day.

He didn't try to tempt me back up. What a nice boy. He took to pacing after he finished his meal, stopping every now and then to tilt his head back and place a hand on his stomach. Had my food made him sick?

When he'd had time to digest the meal he sat down so that his feet dangled into the water and asked, "How long am I going to be here?"

"As long as you'd like," I told him. "If it stops a lord demon, I don't mind bringing you more food." When he grimaced and looked at the leftover shells and bones from his meal, I added, "I can get human food too, if you would like, or try to find a way to bring fire here. Wood could be slid down the passage where air comes in."

The boy shook his head. "It's not just that. I'll go stir crazy in this small space. If Elmairy went elsewhere to wait while I hid, then I'd like to go back to town. If I feel him getting closer I can run into the water again. I'll just be careful to avoid other siren in the future."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "If you could take me back, I'd appreciate that. I don't know how far I'd have to swim to reach air again, and I'm probably not a strong enough swimmer to make it from a siren's home to safe land."

"If we see the demon, you come back with me," I told him.

"Deal."

He dove into the water. I looked over at his pants, wondering if he'd want them back. When he didn't comment on how he still only had the smaller pants on I decided they must not have been too important to him and wrapped my arms under his, taking off in the direction of the human village.


	36. Lucy saves everyone by preventing them from saving someone

Erza really let me have it as we ran after Grisia. How did we track him without Sting acting as a compass for us? Angels. Whoever was directing Natsu was considerate enough not to warp him so he could still guide us. Grisia had started off in one direction, much faster than we could go, but had changed and almost doubled back, so we were getting close. We were giving Rogue a pass for now, since the God dammed black mage was guarding him. Zeref had clearly been enough to keep Ecilan at bay. From what Natsu heard when another angel stopped in to report that Trisiel was recovering well from the injuries Grisia gave him, it seemed they were still together. They warned Natsu to be careful now that Grisia was bold enough to attack specters. Since he could procreate again, he also might not be as forgiving to a rogue son.

"Can Sting even have kids?" I asked Erza to try and distract her from reminding me that it was my fault two guild mates had been possessed.

"I don't care!" she snapped. "He certainly won't now!"

Because you thought it would be just fine for him to run around right in the middle of a battle between lord demons. It didn't matter that we'd only known for certain that the one who'd protect Sting was there. It didn't matter that I'd wanted Natsu to be able to look after him and Rogue at the same time. I said it was safe and now Grisia was at full power.

"We've got bigger problems that whether or not Sting's about to be a parent," Merudy informed us, gesturing to the trees.

Siegrain appeared out of nowhere, likely using whatever strange teleporting ability he had, and started running alongside us. "Need a hand?"

"You're after Rogue too!" Erza hissed. "Go away!"

"I'm against Ceo and Grisia-and Elmairy. The one they're handing that ice mage over too. If Rogue is smart he'll be steering clear of them, and if not, I want the threat of him being stolen out from under me gone before going after him. Besides, that bastard _burned_ me." Siegrain showed us the pink marks still on his arms. "We're headed towards mutual enemies."

I had lost all authority, so it was Merudy and Erza who discussed it and decided that it would help to have Etherion and a lord demon on the same side as us. Ecilan alone had been able to stop a fellow bodiless demon, and Siegrain could apparently handle one at full power. Terrifying as that was, we were going to need him. On Ceo, or on Grisia? Hard to say. I didn't want Sting coming out of this damaged, but I wouldn't want to see Jellal even more damaged either. And if Elmairy was also in the fight, the one at fault if Gray were to be hurt would be me...

"You can stay," Erza told him, "But we want you out in front."

Siegrain shrugged and ran ahead.

-o-

We met friends of the living spell not too far from our destination. The same beach we'd come with Sting before. Had Grisia decided to take care of Sting's need to swim? He'd change hosts quickly if that got to be a nuisance. We had a few years to save Jellal, but Grisia might kill Sting as soon as it was convenient.

The thought chilled me. Sting could die at any given moment-and that was my fault.

But before we could do anything to help him, we had to take care of the members of Genesis lined up at the shore. They didn't notice any of us right away. Siegrain had to be held back before he could launch himself at them, and we all ducked behind a beach shack while we figured out what to do.

"Can they sense Ecilan?" Erza asked.

Siegrain shook his head. "He was coming at them from another direction. I was supposed to hit them from behind."

"Then we'll wait until he makes his move," Erza decided. She peered around the corner, than hid again. "It looks like Elmairy got out, but he doesn't have Gray yet. Ecilan will have to take him. Siegrain, can you hold off Grisia?"

"I want to hurt the other one."

"Ceo?"

"Ceo's host."

"You've hurt him enough," she snapped. "We need to take keep Grisia at bay. The rest of us may be able to handle Ceo while he's still injured."

Siegrain scowled, but nodded. Erza still had to hold him back twice when we heard Ceo speaking, discussing what they'd do when and if Gray came out of the water.

Gray was in the water? How long had he been there? What if he'd drowned?

I shut my eyes and tried to block out the thought, but just saw his body drifting onto the shore instead. No! If Gray were dead then Elmairy would know. Probably. If he wasn't marked, it would have made more sense for them to grab a civilian than it would to chase Gray out into the sea. The sea…

Why didn't lord demons ever go into the sea?

"I get that a fire demon wouldn't go in water, but what's stopping Ceo and Elmairy?" I asked.

"Salt," Siegrain guessed. "Ceo's got too many open wounds, and Elmairy's the lord plant demon. He loses power around things that kill plants, same way Grisia wouldn't want to be in water. It completely blocks their powers."

"So it could prevent Sting from overheating if Grisia got near him during a swim," Natsu muttered. Never mind that Sting had already been possessed. The information could have come in hand earlier. Sting probably would have been thrilled to hear he would be safe to hide away in the ocean until we had the Grisia situation under control. Of course there was still Rogue for him to worry about, but…

I'd had no idea. Rogue was Lucia's son? If memory served, Lucia didn't pass on any demonic abilities to his children that every other lord demon couldn't do to some extent-even if he was supposed to be by far the most powerful. How was a fallen angel more powerful than a lord demon who was more powerful than another angel? I had no idea. Lucia must have been a very special angel. Maybe Rogue had inherited some sort of angelic ability the lord demons wanted.

Speak of the devil… almost literally. Natsu was the one who spotted Rogue eying Grisia from behind another building. Had he escaped Zeref, or was Zeref still with him? I was afraid to find out.

"Erza," I hissed, nudging her before pointing to Rogue.

She looked, then cursed. "Is he going to move in on his own? That's insane!"

"Not if he has Zeref with him," Merudy grumbled. "You saw the damage he did."

"He's going to do it," I realized. "Ceo is still injured, so he can't look like too big a threat. If he thinks he and Zeref can handle Elmairy too, he's going to attack them. Can Zeref-"

"No. It's possible that sea spray might weaken Elmairy, but he's staying too high up to be exposed to too much," Siegrain decided. "If the best Zeref could do against Ecilan was try to act as a distraction and put up a shield, then he's not going to be able to handle Elmairy and Genesis. Besides, Grisia-"

"Is in Sting's body. If anyone thinks they have a chance of getting through to them, it would be Rogue," I said.

Rogue who, in the time it had taken for us to discuss that, had slipped around the building he was using for cover and moved up closer to Genesis. Zeref was now peering around his old post.

"Lucy, get him," Erza ordered. "If he really thinks he can attack without getting captured again, I won't stop him, but we can't let him go with such an unreliable ally as his only backup."

"Eh? Me? But…" But Rogue was way on the other side of the beach. There was easily five hundred feet of uncovered sand that I'd have to sprint across, and people _were_ checking back occasionally to make sure no one attacked from behind.

Then Siegrain was over there, ducking behind the same ice cream cart Rogue had hidden behind and tapping his shoulder. Right. We had someone who could teleport. I held my breath and waited to see if he'd try to smother our guild mate, but Siegrain proved he'd meant what he said. His goal was to weaken Genesis. Abducting Rogue could wait.

Of course, Rogue hadn't heard that claim, and he was the one who'd spent a week in ice. He flinched back, raised a fist, then had to have a hand cover his mouth while Siegrain pointed us out to him. Rogue nodded. Siegrain disappeared.

"Scaredy cat," he whispered in my ear.

"Let's see you cross that distance on foot," I suggested. He ignored me.

In the time before we finally saw Ecilan creeping across the sand, Rogue moved back over to where we'd first spotted him and explained the plan to Zeref. We had no idea how they'd act when the fight started, but at least they knew how to try and take advantage of our being there.

I was happy that Zeref knew how to take advantage of me. That's something I never thought I'd find myself saying.

Grisia was the first to notice Ecilan, turning as the mist was still a hundred feet away. He snarled and readied a fire spell, alerting the rest of Genesis.

Ecilan dodged the attack and went straight for Elmairy. I hadn't seen Siegrain relay the plans to him, but it must have made sense to go after the opponent he had the best odds against first. While Grisia's attention was on the other lord demon, we jumped out. Siegrain and Rogue went straight for Grisia, one tackling him while the other stopped short and became more vocal than I'd known they were capable of, trying desperately to get their voice to reach Sting. Erza made a b-line for Jellal, who happened to still be possessed by Ceo. Natsu gestured that he was going to help with Elmairy and left me to help Erza while Merudy veered to the right of all of us and started mowing down members of Genesis. Glancing north, I could see that Zeref had followed her lead. I knew it would bother me later, but just then I didn't care what state exactly he left his victims in.

Erza had already tackled Ceo. She jumped off him in time to avoid Taros' attack as I pulled him out. By then Ceo was aware of what was going on, and was able to summon a burst of wind that blew sand over all of us. I was trying to rub it out of my eyes when a powerful jolt of electricity struck me in the chest.

I flew back. My vision blurred for a second before I struggled back to my feet. A bolt like that had stopped Rogue's heart before. I needed to be more careful not to get hit again.

While Erza threw herself at Ceo again, I made a dash for the water, pulling out Aquarius' key and giving Taros, who was still rubbing his eyes, the order to go back.

"Gate of the water bear-kah!"

Something else hit me. Something hot. I fell forward, wincing as water hit what I realized was a harsh burn. Grisia. Struggling up again, holding tight to my key, I looked over at him. Siegrain had managed to beat Ceo before, but Grisia was being careful not to give him a good shot, and was targeting Rogue, who still refused to strike back. I could understand that. I wouldn't be surprised if Erza could only attack Ceo by channeling any leftover aggression from what we went through at the tower.

Ceo! I was still helping Erza. Not announcing my actions at the top of my voice a second time around, I summoned Aquarius. "That one!" I told her, pointing to Jellal. "Wipe him out!"

Aquarius looked him up and down, studying all the raw patches on his skin. They didn't look as bad as before, but he was still hurt. "Ew," she muttered before lifting her urn.

I forgot to get out of the water in time to avoid being caught in her attack.

As I got up for the third time in fewer minutes, I looked around to see if I could spot Ceo anywhere. Erza had already got to him. He lay unconscious several yards away, but even though I could see he was still breathing from where I stood, Erza felt the need to check his pulse.

One down. Looking around I saw that most of Genesis had fled. I couldn't blame them. Lord demons or no, it must be terrifying to have Zeref go after you. Zeref had settled for watching from a distance, but Merudy had joined the fight with Grisia. So had Rogue, who finally seemed to realize that it was, in fact, a fight. Elmairy and Ecilan were nowhere to be seen, likely because several angels, one of them a groggy looking Trisiel, were standing beside Natsu.

With the Ether-nut, Rogue, and Merudy all pressing him, Grisia seemed to have met his match. Seemed to. Upon closer inspection he wasn't panting because they were pressing them. He was just struggling to get in air.

Of course. If Elmairy would avoid salt, than even if he knew Sting was half siren, Grisia would avoid water! Had he not realized that siren _needed_ to swim? Had he been hoping Sting's human half would pull through? It didn't matter why. Grisia's legs were trembling from too little oxygen being taken in.

Of the three in battle, only Rogue noticed and stepped back, still not wanting to hurt Sting, lord demon possession or no. But it was Erza who thought to alert the two that didn't know anything was wrong with Sting.

"Stop!" she called out. "Merudy! Siegrain! He's having an asthma attack. You're going to kill Sting! Let him breath!"

Merudy cursed and backed off immediately, but Siegrain hesitated a moment before deciding to obey Erza.

"If he tries anything, I _will_ kill him," Siegrain warned.

Rogue shot him a warning look before stepping forward again to try and steady Sting('s body) and gave getting through to his friend another shot. Erza ran up and dropped to her knees beside them just as Grisia's legs gave out. Rogue caught him and the two lowered him down, both frantically trying to figure out how to fix asthma without any medication, desperate to keep Sting's heart beating…

From his abandoned spot on the beach, Ceo groaned.

Heart… beating?

Lighting had stopped Rogue's heart once. Could we count on Ceo to revive Sting if that happened to him? Probably not, but if there _were_ a way to revive Sting...

I bit my lip and walked over to the three, getting down on my knees and feeling for Sting's pulse as Grisia fought to keep his eyes open. When Rogue had been possessed, I'd seen the ghost who took over him leave his body first after his near death. Sting still had a pulse, but he wasn't breathing anymore. Already, I could see the vague, demonic form of Grisia beginning to slip out.

"CPR!" Erza screamed. "One of you has to know CPR."

Rogue muttered something under his breath about kissing and married couples and reached for Sting's shoulder.

"No!" I cried, slapping his hand away. Sting still had a pulse, one that hadn't completely slowed down yet. What he needed was to get into the water. If that could wait long enough for Grisia to be out…

I looked frantically to Natsu and the angels. Natsu got the idea and ran to us, sword out. Why did he even try to use it against Grisia? I don't know. A few angels vanished, but were accompanied by others as they came back, each heading for me and Sting. For Grisia.

"Lucy, we have to help Sting!" Erza cried.

"Get him into the water!" I insisted, grabbing a limp arm and trying to drag Sting along the sand. Stupid-! Why did muscle have to be so heavy? Sting needed to spend less time lifting bars and more time drinking at them. I'd rather have a lighter jerk with a bit of a beer belly to pull into the water than a nice set of abs always being flashed around for eye candy.

Rogue, bless him, seemed too startled by the absurd sounding order to stop me. Erza, on the other hand, grabbed Sting's leg and pulled back. "We don't have time to squabble!"

"So let him go!" I cried, looking around for help. Merudy had turned her attention to Zeref, who was _still_ watching like we'd bite him if he got too close. The angels were all focusing on Grisia as he continued to seep out, unnoticed by the others. Each of them save Natsu readying some sort of spell. So my only option for help was "Natsu!" He blinked and looked to me. "Natsu, we need to get Sting to the ocean!"

That alone might have done the trick, as Erza's grip loosened just long enough for me to tug Sting's body back a few more feet. Holding the hilt of his sword against his palm, Natsu pressed it to Sting's other arm and helped me drag him back. I checked once and still felt a slight pulse, but at this point, who could be sure? I didn't see any other spirits leave Sting, so he wasn't dead yet, but it could be too late for him to revive in the ocean-if he even could have in the first place.

I almost let go as soon as I felt water rush around my ankle, but ankle deep couldn't possibly be enough. Natsu and I kept pulling Sting in deeper. When the water reached my knees Natsu decided we weren't going fast enough. With a well angled sweep of his arms, he launched Sting out into the water.

All I could do now was wait. Looking back to the sand, I saw Erza still staring out at me in shock, like she wasn't sure if I'd lost it or if I'd lied by concealing Natsu's presence. Rogue had followed us out into the water, standing with a look on his face that was either what you'd expect from someone who's puppy had drowned or a completely blank expression. That's not me doing a poor job interpreting. Rogue almost looked like he didn't know what he ought to be feeling just then.

Then he blinked and looked over his shoulder. I followed his gaze to Grisia and the angels, locked in combat again. I was so sick of combat just then, but I was happy to see they could at least win when it was twelve to one.

"I can't see any mist…" he said, "But is Grisia over there?"

"Yeah."

"He left Sting's body?"

"Yeah."

Rogue looked down. "Then Sting-"

He stumbled and fell forward into the water. The dorsal fin sticking out would have made it obvious, but Sting still made a point of popping his head up for me as he pushed out of the water. "Thanks."

"Natsu helped." I'd already ruined the secret for everyone else. Why bother anymore?

Sting grinned, moving a finger in circles around his ear. " _Su-ure_ he did. Rogue said Grisia's still here? I don't see him at all." He patted his stomach. "Feels just fine."

I glanced over at Rogue, who was still trying to get his bearings. He must have landed hard. "Yeah. You should be safe if you stay in the water. See if you can find Gray out there."

Sting snorted "If he didn't drown, and he doesn't have a good track record for not drowning if you ask me. I've already had to save his sorry ass once. I'll look, but if I planned on giving up on living on land I'd have done so a while ago. Don't count on me being gone long."

With impeccable timing, Rogue turned just as Sting dipped back into the water and swam off.


	37. Rogue is his father's son

Somehow, seeing Sting alive and well had only intensified the blank drowned puppy look on Rogue's face.

"When did that happen?" he asked me as we sloshed back up to the dry sand.

"When did what happen?" I asked back. "A lot of things just happened."

"Sting. A fish."

"Ah... That." Could I get away with lying to him? It was Sting's secret to tell. Whatever freaky demon powers he might have gotten from Lucia, he couldn't have gotten mind reading.

"Yes I could have. How long has Sting been able to do that?"

Well… drat. Hopefully he hadn't heard the freaky part too. Sighing, I told him, "As far as I know, it happened at his conception. He called himself a half-breed, after all. As for why he hid it from you, I have no idea. I do suspect, however, that he had no idea you were a half-breed yourself."

Rogue didn't have a response for that. But when I glanced back, he was glaring. I quickened my pace.

He didn't speak again until I was stepping out of the water. "Who else is here? More 'companions' of yours."

Erza's head snapped up, eyes darting about. Alert for anyone else I may not have let her know was talking from beyond the grave. Simon? Wendy's old guild master?

"I couldn't say," I muttered.

Trisiel nodded his approval.

The angels, all twelve, had pinned Grisia to the sand. Several spells that I could only guess were meant for binding clung to him as he tried to struggle free. I could make out his full form now. Like a leathery, horned beast, but still intangible looking as the mist. He wasn't massive, but his presence was so attention grabbing that I had to keep reminding myself that he and the twelve surrounding him with large white wings were all invisible to everyone else.

"Natsu," Trisiel ordered. "Come help. We can't seal him without Lucia, but we may be able to bind him more securely if you can keep him from resisting."

"How many are there?" Rogue demanded. "I can recognize Grisia. Who are the others? They don't feel the same as Natsu does."

Natsu should have felt similar to Grisia. I scowled and took a step away from Rogue. "I don't-"

"Tell me," he ordered. "My best friend is a fish. What else has everyone been hiding from me?"

As if I was only hiding it from him! But… I suppose I could get the sentiment. We all knew he was Lucia's son now. It might seem like we could withhold information from him because of that. We hadn't exactly spoken kindly of half-demons around him before.

His scowl was deepening. Could he hear those thought too?

I whimpered and looked from him to Erza, who looked equally disapproving of me not explaining what was going on. Trisiel shook his head when I glanced to him for approval but…

"If you need Lucia… could Rogue act as a substitute?" He did have some of Lucia's powers…

Rogue went so stiff that I felt it, even with him standing a good six feet away behind me. Trisiel frown and opened his mouth to speak, hand raised in what I knew was going to be a scolding, but then he froze and eased back, thinking about it. "A substitute for Lucia…? He's a half demon… but as Lucia's child, his demon half does come from angelic origins. It's possible that he could have the power to help us seal Lucia. Send those girls away and have him come here."

I nodded and moved towards Erza, then thought better of it and walked up to Merudy instead. "The one Natsu's taking orders from says they need to try something. They don't want people knowing about the afterlife if it can be helped, so he wants you to leave."

"But Erza and Rogue get to stay?"

I leaned over and whispered, "Erza has to go too, but I think she's mad at me right now. That's too scary for me to do anything about."

Merudy nodded. "Erza. We can make her fill us in later. We need to see what Elmairy and Ecilan are up to."

Erza scowled, trembling with the effort of trying to decide whether to stay or go with Merudy. Siegrain started to follow, but changed his mind and came back. He sat a distance away. Unless he had a dragon slayer's hearing he'd be no trouble. The angels seemed satisfied with that.

"Bring Rogue over here," a female angel ordered.

"Rogue," I told him, "you have to go to where Grisia is."

"Why should I?"

"Because the angels say so."

Not my most tactful reveal. I didn't complain while he sputtered, but did speak up again when he took a step back and shook his head in refusal. The son of the fallen angel. How could it not sound like a bad idea to get near demon fighting otherworldly beings who his father had betrayed? I gave him motivation. "They're trying to seal Grisia. They think you can act in Lucia's place. Don't you want to save Sting?"

He glared at me again and mouthed something that probably made me fortunate not to be able to read lips. However bad a mood he might have been in for learning that his best friend was part fish, however, he still nodded and stepped forward, walking up to Trisiel and the other angels without needing any guidance from me.

Which wasn't to say he didn't need guidance. It took only a quick lookover from the angels to say that he'd do for the time being, but the spell for sealing Grisia wasn't something Rogue inherently knew. I was made to stand behind Rogue and repeat the syllables of the incantation to him-which I could not properly pronounce, while he had to repeat them from me while figuring out what the proper pronunciation was. Needless to say, it was some time before he had it down.

Natsu and I were shooed away as they began the incantation, twelve angels following Rogue's lead-since he could hardly follow theirs. For all the hassle it had been, I was amazed they hadn't given up on teaching Rogue and let Grisia go.

-o-

Rogue was finishing the (ungodly long) incantation for the angelic spell when Erza and Merudy returned. They didn't say much as he spoke in tongues, but did react to the stone that rose up from the earth, images and words in a dead language already carved in. They couldn't see Grisia dissolve into it like Natsu or I could, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what it meant.

"He's sealing Grisia?"

I nodded.

"Good," Merudy decided. "Looks like Lucia's blood is an asset for _our_ side too. Then the last problem to deal with…" she looked to Zeref, who had built himself an elaborate sand castle while Rogue had worked on the spell. Suddenly it occurred to me that the angels hadn't bothered with the devil himself the whole time they were here.

Odd.

"The last problem would be that Ceo vanished while we were trying to track the other lord demons," Erza informed her, looking over her shoulder to the place where Jellal's body had been.

"What?" I shrieked, verifying his absence myself before looking to Siegrain. "What were you doing? And you-" Zeref didn't look at me with any malice when I turned to accuse him of letting that happen. In fact, it was pretty innocent confusion. It still killed the words in my throat. "Um… did you see where Ceo went?"

Zeref shook his head and went back to building the little smithy outside the gates of his palace. "I didn't hear anything beyond you two. It didn't seem like it was my business, so I tried to stay out of it." Okay. Considerate in a completely useless way. I looked back to Siegrain.

"Some Genesis guy took him while you were still speaking gibberish. You said I wasn't supposed to hurt him, but I really don't give a shit."

Erza lunged for him, only to be grabbed and held back by Merudy. "We need him until the lord demons are stopped."

"He's with Ecilan anyway! Let go of me! He let them take Jellal!"

"And you think I don't care about that?" Merudy hissed. "Hurting Siegrain won't get Jellal back."

"But it wouldn't hurt if I took my leave here," Siegrain decided, getting to his feet and turning north. "Looks like Ecilan went this way. If he's still struggling with Elmairy then I don't know if he'd want me bringing Rogue or not. Either way, I'm not sure I have the magic left to face this many of you. Maybe some other time."

Then he vanished.

"Should we go after him?" I asked. Looking from one person to another for an answer.

Rogue shook his head. "He did help stop Grisia."

And even if he also helped nearly capture Rogue, that he helped rescue Sting still mattered more.

"Oh! Sting!" I remembered. "If Grisia is back inside the seal, then-"

"The key to his release should have returned to its unused form," one of the angels told me as the others began to vanish. "Obvious location or not, Grisia's seal is secure so long as he keeps that amulet away from this place. If that fish boy has any sense to him, he'll drop it as far out at sea as he dares go." Then she left as well.

If Sting had any sense… well, he'd certainly have enough to get rid of the amulet, but I could only hope he'd think to make it unrecoverable too.

"Sting…" Erza bowed her head. "That's right. When you mentioned Natsu… Lucy, you've been speaking to Natsu's spirit?"

"Er… well…"

"I see. Then… he won't be waking up."

"Of course I will be!" Natsu cried. I swear he was that loud just to make up for having stayed quiet so long.

"We can still wake him up," I insisted. "Natsu and the an-appointed… spirits in charge of him have both told me. If we can get back the amulet that Siegrain stole, it's possible to reverse the spell that's left Natsu in a near dead state."

"But it _is_ Natsu who's with you?" she confirmed.

I nodded.

"Can you see Sting as well?"

"No." I pointed to the water. "He swam way too far out that way for me to be able to make him out now."

"What do you-"

"It seems he's part siren," Rogue grumbled. 'Shoulda told me' didn't need to be added. His tone said it for him.

"Siren…" Erza put a hand to her chin, thinking about it. "Then he needed the water to breath? I didn't-" She gasped, dropping to her knees and bowing without warning. "When I caught you two going to the lake as well? I didn't realize. Forgive me."

"W-well, I wasn't the one who was suffocating… so…" I laughed and gestured for her to drop it. "A-anyway, Sting will come back when he does. Now that we don't have to worry about Grisia I doubt… er… _they_ care enough about what he's doing to send Natsu to keep an eye on him, so one of us will have to wait for him. The rest of us…" The rest of us what?

"Ecilan," Erza said. "Whatever I think of Siegrain, if we stop his lord demon, we can recover the amulet that's keeping Natsu asleep."

Natsu nodded, seemingly having forgotten that Trisiel wouldn't restore him until there was no concern about Rogue being caught by a lord demon. A fire half demon against someone who used ice or plant magic would be better anyway.

"I'll wait for Sting," Rogue volunteered.

"I will." I insisted. "He might be worried you'll confront him about being part siren, but I caught him not too long after you ran off, so he has no reason to avoid me. Natsu can run ahead to guard you."

Rogue scowled, then nodded. "I did intend to speak to him. Drag him out by the neck for me. And keep Natsu." He turned to Zeref. " _Baum_." Zeref winced and stood up. "Black mage, are you still interested in helping?"

"I still don't see the point of running into danger," Zeref grumbled, but stood and moved towards Rogue. Not all the way to him. He kept a good twenty feet between himself and the others.

"Zeref kept me safe from Ecilan," Rogue told me. "It's a strange choice, but there's comfort in being able to _see_ my body guard. When Sting comes back, let him know that bridal is alright if you two aren't going fast enough."

Whatever that meant. I waved as the rest of them ran north.

"Errrgh!" Natsu growled. "Taking Zeref. Guarding Rogue is _my_ job. I don't want to _wait_ for _Sting_."

"Then go. There's no more danger for me here."

"Rogue can tell when I'm nearby," he grumbled.

"Oh… that's right. He could sense all of you. Well, you can have fun harassing Sting when he comes back."

"Can I?"

"Poke him with that hilt to your heart's content."

"Poke who?"

I jumped. How had someone snuck up on me in such an open space? Dumb question. Hadn't we just ambushed Genesis?

Natsu and I turned to the water, where a… nude… blonde woman… and Gray… um… was also… completely naked… and… uh… Well, that made… the green marking around his stomach… highly visible but… also… something else. I forgot.

"G-Gray…" I mumbled.

"Glad to see me alive?"

"Put on some pants," Natsu told him.

Gray cocked his head. "Lucy, why are you turning red?"

"They all have things like these," the woman said, holding out a pair of boxers. "His small pants fell off while we were coming here."

Gray looked at them. Blinked. Blushed. She didn't react when he snatched them from her and hurriedly put them on, which looked awkward with-oh! His arm. That's what I was having trouble remembering. It looked awful. Black with burns and barely moving. Gray must have already trained himself not to irritate it, because he kept it still and paid it little heed. "Where are the clothes I lent you?" he demanded.

"You didn't do anything to indicate I would need them," the woman replied. "I don't see any lord demons. That means you want to stay here?"

"Y-yes! J-j-just go home!"

"You don't want me to return the big pants? They seem to matter now."

"Keep them!" Gray cried.

The woman shrugged. "Alright. Since you can't say thank you, I will accept them as a gift."

Gray averted his gaze as she turned and walked deeper into the water. Natsu didn't. I'd already been keeping my eyes peeled for him while I showered, but I'd have to keep track of him when others were bathing as well.

As the woman dipped into the water and began to grow pale, another pale face surface a few hundred yards to her right and began to take on a more natural skin tone. Was the hair color similar? No. No that was ridiculous.

Sting was no more clothed than Gray had been, but at least he was holding onto his clothes as he trudged up. He was pulling on a shirt when he spotted us and turned around for a moment to get his pants on. Didn't care what I saw indeed.

Once he was dressed he called out, "Where did everyone else go?" as he ran up to us.

"I'm fine, thanks," Gray answered. Then his eyes widened, and he took a step back. "Wait. Grisia-"

"Sealed. That's Sting," I assured him.

"Still bad news."

"I can _hear_ you!" Sting shouted from a few hundred feet away.

Ah. Dragon slayer ears. But it beat Rogue's mind reading.

"Can I harass him?" Natsu asked.

"I'm not stopping you."

Natsu grinned and ran to Sting, meeting him fifty yard away and striking his shoulder with his sword hilt. Sting stopped and felt around, trying to figure out what had hit him.

"Your ghost buddy?" Gray asked.

I nodded, then remembered he hadn't been there when Sting was about to die. "It's Natsu," I told him. "He's not dead, but it's Natsu. I was supposed to keep it a secret, but I had to let Erza and Merudy know and… well… I might as well tell you."

Gray scowled, but didn't look as shocked as Erza or Rogue had to have a secret kept from them. "So long as that idiot isn't dead…"

Sting stumbled up to us, losing his balance when Natsu shoved the hilt in front of his foot and splashing into the water. I cleared my throat and gestured to the north. "Everyone else is chasing after Siegrain and Ecilan. Gray… Elmairy's there so-"

"So what. Now that I know how to repel him, I just need to be careful when he's nearby. I'm not standing idly while the rest of the guild fights."

I nodded. "We'll buy salt on the way. We need to catch up to them. Oh-and Sting. Rogue said…"


	38. Erza's fiancé is still in danger

Of the four of us, Zeref seemed to be the slowest. At some point he gave up on keeping pace and let himself fall back, teleporting to a nearby location whenever we got too far ahead. Rogue would shiver if the black mage got too close, which I found most concerning. It was only on Rogue's word that we were trusting Zeref. If Rogue was trying to hide that something about Zeref frightened him…

No. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter. No matter who was vouching for him, there was nothing right about having the Black Mage Zeref trailing behind us. As long as he kept his distance you could pretend he wasn't there, but he was. The man responsible for the deaths of Gray's parents and master was behind us. The man who inspired mine and Jellal's torture was behind us. Thinking about it should have made me sick.

But it was also weird to feel uncomfortable with this boy. Undoubtedly, his magic gave of an unsettling aura, but his demeanor had been courteous so far, and I did appreciate that he never came so close as to really unnerve me. Or kill me. I couldn't think of anything Zeref had personally done to me, for that matter. The cult hadn't been his own, though I could blame him for inspiring those men. I could be mad at him for Gray, but I was still going through people to feel I had reason to be mad. Jellal's first possession had definitely hurt me personally, but that had been Ultear and-

I dug my heals into the ground, coming to a halt just as Zeref warped forward. His magic aura made me cringe in the moment before he warped back again.

"What is it?" Zeref called out.

Merudy and Rogue looked back at me.

"L-Lucy…" I told them. "If Sting's still weak from his near death, it will just be Lucy and Natsu's ghost against anyone who might come back for revenge. I need to go back."

Rogue and Merudy exchanged glances, then the latter nodded. "If Natsu were at full power as a ghost it wouldn't be an issue, but leaving her behind might have put her at risk. You go back."

I nodded and took off in the other direction-something made more pleasant by Zeref warping well out of my way. What an accommodating young man. Or... wait. How old _was_ he? I'd have to ask later. I had more important matters to take care of just then.

In truth, I was counting on Lucy and Natsu to fend for themselves. I wouldn't even run back past them, were that direction not the most likely way Jellal had gone. If Sting was alive and freed of Grisia, then that meant we could repeat the results on Jellal.

I could hear the seashore again when I spotted two blond heads bobbing towards me in sync. In sync? Why were Sting and Lucy moving in sync?

I slowed to acknowledge them. Merudy and Rogue had both put Ecilan above rescuing Jellal, and I couldn't call myself a good leader if I didn't at least make sure my friends were alright before ignoring their decision. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to anyway, but the longer I took the further away Jellal would get.

At least I wasn't so focused on Jellal that I didn't also notice Gray running behind Sting, who was carrying Lucy bridal style.

"Make him put me down!" Lucy cried as she saw me.

"Sting…"

"I'm fine," he said automatically. "She was going too slow, and now that I'm not a target I want to get a shot at those demons before they're out of reach. You coming were this way Are we going the wrong direction?"

"No." I pointed the way I'd came. "Merudy and Rogue are up that way. They're running a little slower for Zeref's sake, so you should be able to catch up to them."

"You're not going with the,?" Gray asked.

I considered lying again, but neither Gray nor Sting had been part of the decision to go after Ecilan first, and Lucy was too preoccupied with whining and squirming in Stng's inattentive grasp to likely notice. "I'm going back for Jellal. If we could suffocate Grisia out of Sting-"

"Then we might be able to free Jellal that way," Gray realized.

"But the other lord demons-" Lucy started,

"Are going to be dealing with Zeref," I said. Not that Zeref had helped against the demons last time, but if he didn't get distracted by the Genesis members then maybe...

Gray nodded. "Lucy, I don't think we can get Erza to deal with Elmairy and Ecilan while we have a reasonable chance of saving Jellal. I'll stay with her. You and Sting go ahead. This gives me a way to help without getting close to Elmairy anyway."

My eyes dropped down to the markings on Gray's stomach. So Grisia _had_ gotten him that close. But what mattered was that he wasn't possessed.

Lucy stuttered, then threw her hands up in the air in surrender. She managed to accidentally smack Sting in the face, which made him finally drop her.

"Ow… watch it," she grumbled, rubbing her butt.

"You watch it," Sting snapped, rubbing his nose at the same time. "You two are going to suffocate your friend?"

"It worked on you," I retorted. How dare he take that tone with me! Did he think I wanted to hurt Jellal?

"Yeah. Suffocation's something I'm a bit used to," Sting muttered. "Lucy, you and Natsu go on with the others. I can't help you run, so you'll have to take those heels of yours off to catch up to them." Lucy made a rude gesture with one of her fingers, but followed Sting's advice and pulled off her shoes. Our feet weren't the same size, but I summoned a pair of sandals for her to run in so she wouldn't hurt her feet on and stones or twigs. "I'll go with Erza too," Sting added. "I had to learn CPR for when I get… careless near the water, so if they're going to choke someone it would be good if I went along. You and your _companion_ should go guard Rogue like you're supposed to."

Lucy's face turned red, and for a moment she could only stutter. Then she hmphed and started walking off towards Merudy and Rogue, then she broke into a run.

"Let's not waste any more time," I told them. "The longer we dally here, the further away Jellal gets."

"I'm a little tired from carrying princess-"

I slung Sting over my shoulder and grabbed Gray's arm, pulling both of them in the direction that led to Jellal. Gray managed to match my pace on his own, so I released him, but if his highness felt tired, then there was no reason to have him run on his own and slow us down.


	39. Rogue is having a bad day

We tried to travel even slower through the woods than we had already been so Erza could catch up, but when Lucy ran up to us reporting that Erza had gone off after the Siegrain lookalike we took off without her.

"Erza's lovey-dovey with Jellal, right?" Frosch asked.

Merudy scoffed. "Something like that."

"Although I can't understand why this guild is so closely tied to a wanted mage," I grumbled. Jellal's story was one I was only vaguely familiar with, but everyone else traveling with me should have known it, and known it well.

"I can't understand being close to certain criminal mages either," Merudy, the wanted mage, told me. I meant to apologize and tell her that I had only been concerned about the guild's relation to the council, but when I looked to her I saw she was looking at Zeref.

"You didn't mind when he came to the guild earlier," Lucy pointed out.

Couldn't they pick just one side to attack me from? "I didn't realize who he was."

"I'm pretty sure someone said his name."

"Well I'm sorry for not instantly connecting it to something that happened when I was a kid," I defended. "I'm not trying to say he's not someone worth knowing—he seemed nice. I'm just wondering if it isn't a risk. How does the guild even have a connection like that?"

"He's a childhood friend of Erza's," Lucy told me. "How did we end up with Zeref following behind us?"

Okay. Maybe my question had been a _bit_ hypocritical. "I ran into him. He offered to help. I would have appreciated it if he'd given me his real name at the time, though. He hasn't caused any trouble yet, and I doubt I could chase him off, so there you have it."

Lucy glanced away for a moment, then back to me. "Natsu wants to know why you couldn't tell he was lying. Shouldn't your demon sense clue you in when people do that?"

It might have, but there was so much chaos amassed around Zeref that I couldn't pick out any individual instance of murderer, much less a small lie. I took a deep breath and explained that to the girls in detail, skipping over the part where I liked that about Zeref. "But I do believe him when he says he means to protect me from the lord demons," I tacked on at the end.

"What does he get from that?" Merudy demanded.

"Thirteen lord demons _not_ breathing down my neck," a reply came from behind. We must have slowed if Zeref was close enough to us to hear our discussion.

"Can you follow so close behind?"

"You're already running. If there's any danger of my magic firing I'll just stop," Zeref said. "I have no more interest in seeing all of the lord demons breaking free than any of you do, and Lucia seems to think I'm the best possible choice whenever he wants anyone to look after his kid. I don't mind helping there. Of course, it would be easier if his kid wasn't deliberately running towards his pursuers."

I stumbled, struggling to keep running without falling over and hoping I would have been mistaken for tripping over a branch, and not my own feet. Something had felt off the first time Zeref mentioned being asked to look after me, but hearing it had happened multiple times was what it took for me to figure out why. "Lucia asked you… since… but he's been sealed away, hasn't he? How could you have gotten in contact with him so many times?"

"He shows up. As long as he isn't around more than a minute or two, the angels don't bother with him."

"He isn't sealed," Lucy told me. "The other lord demons want you as bait to draw him out. If they can create enough trouble on their own, then Lucia will have a reason to stay. They just need a reason for him to come, too."

"He's never had an offspring survive as long as you have." Zeref added.

Well don't I feel special?

"That's probably because of the chaos addiction," I thought allowed. The girls had read up on what lord demons did. Surely they'd know at least the general details of my abilities. "I could see someone being driven to commit murder to get their fill of it."

"Have you ever been tempted?" Merudy asked.

I shook my head. Bad emotions were usually enough for me. Although after Zeref I may need to lock myself up and go cold turkey for a while, just so I wouldn't be adjusted to such large doses anymore. The one upside to being imprisoned by Ecilan was that all that close proximity to Zeref had given me a chance to get used to so much chaotic energy. Focusing around him was rarely hard anymore.

"Could you be tempted?" Merudy pressed.

"Gray's safe!" Lucy blurted out. "He and Sting came back together. They're both going to go help Erza with Jellal. We thought it would be a bad idea for him to come along with us when we might meet Elmairy, and they we're going to free Jellal the same way we did Sting. Sting said he knew more than any of us about getting someone breathing again."

Sting. A siren. I wouldn't be surprised. Fuck him for keeping that secret from me. Hypocrisy be dammed.

"That's good." What else was I supposed to say there? I looked back to see if Zeref had anything to add about depossession, but he'd fallen back.

 _When he passes the tree_ — "I'm still not comfortable having the _Black Mage Zeref_ at my back." Merudy complained.

"Mm." I looked around. Where had that thought come from? Tree? We were running through a forest. It could be any tree. Could I pick up the thought again? Reading minds wasn't something I did deliberately. Even when I'd tried, I'd never had too much luck with it.

I slowed to a stop, looking around for any danger. No one. I wasn't picking up any anxiety either. That was usually a good way to sniff out a trap. Most people are anxious about it going off right.

"Rogue?" Lucy asked.

"No… It's nothing." I looked back to her. "I just thought I… heard something."

"You do have sharp hearing."

I nodded. "Probably my imagination though. Let's hurry."

I'd only taken two steps when I felt something constrict around my neck, and it wasn't until I'd finished my moment of blind panic that I realized it was only my collar. Someone had grabbed the back of my shirt. Given how far I was being dragged from the group in that short moment, it was someone I'd met before.

"Caught ya." Siegrain laughed. He then raised his voice and added for the others, "The truce is over. I hope you don't mind if we take him back. No black magic cage this time."


	40. Sting is an expert at not breathing

That bit-uh… that… nice… companion of mine, carried me on her shoulder as we ran back across the beach, through town, and into hill after hill of sand grass. I would have applaud her for her strength and endurance had I not been struggling to keep from vomiting all over her backside.

Lucky for my lunch (and Erza's blouse) Ceo hadn't managed to go far with his head start. Even as Erza dropped me and I had to regain my bearings the issue was obvious. With so many open wounds, not to mention a few cracks filled with a sort, Etherion colored glow, it didn't take much guessing to figure out what was slowing him down.

" **You didn't bring the doppelganger this time,** " Ceo noted as we approached him. " **However bad this body may look, you do realize I can still take out all of you, don't you?** "

In a romance story, this would be the point where Erza would declare that Jellal's love for her would keep him from allowing that, or some other crazy claim of that sort. Jellal's love for her was probably why he'd nearly killed her and Natsu when I was a kid too. I kept track of what could have taken away my chance to fight my idol.

Whatever sort of romance Erza's into, it isn't that sappy crap. She didn't waste any time deluding herself into thinking that Jellal would break free of someone's control with the power of feelings. She raised a sword and pointed it at Ceo, declaring, "We realize we _can_ take you down. Or rather, I realize that I must."

Still overly dramatic, but okay.

If you don't care much for drama then I'll cut right to the action, or rather, the first lesson I learned from the action: do not fight a wind controlling demon on a sandy field.

I tried to rub sand and grit from my eyes, but was struck by a bolt of lightning before I could clear my vision and ended up on the ground, still effectively blinded.

Well, fine then. All the beach grass made it easy to hear when wind was coming, and the bloody bastard wasn't exactly quiet as he panted or grunted whenever he irritated an injury. I shut my eyes and did my best to ignore the sting of the sand in them, focusing instead on locating the demon. As long as he didn't resort to lightning again…

There! I lashed out with a holy ray, and judging by the way Erza shrieked it sounded like I'd hit dead on. Ceo yelped, and must have grabbed something because the sound of sand shifting beneath him became strong, but didn't grow distant like it would have if he'd skidded away.

"Pesky fish!"

Gray grabbed me by the collar of my vest and yanked me onto my back just before the sound of thunder boom just above me.

"Thanks."

He mumbled a welcome and got up, moving around like someone who could still see just fine, blast it. I tried to blink my eyes clear, but was only beginning to rid them of the sand when Erza called out to me.

"Lazer breath! Get him now! He's getting away!"

And Gray's ice arrows couldn't fix that? I pushed myself up to a sitting position and tried to track Ceo by sound again, inhaling as I kept my ears peeled, waiting for the right moment.

"Now, Sting!"

So he was further away than I thought. I took a shot in the dark, and had to fire a second time before I heard it connect. This time, the sound of Ceo being struck was followed by a satisfying thump.

Erza ran towards him, making sure he was still alive, not doubt. Gray helped me to get up and walked me over as I continued trying to clear my eyes. Stupid sand. Why did beaches need to have sand? At least once we were done with Ceo I could go swim and get rid of any of the tension being temporarily blinded had given me.

I followed that sound of her crying Jellal's name, stumbling over her and landing face first in—what else—the sand. Ceo still sounded dazed, so I allowed myself a second to try and blink my eyes clear. At least I had a good sense of the shapes and color in front of me when I reached out and felt for his neck.

"I've had a bit more practice doing this under water," I cautioned before squeezing. Grisia and Elmairy would suffer from being dragged into the ocean, but Ceo would probably summon a hurricane and beach me in a different country if I tried that on him. Good old fashioned strangling would have to do the trick here.

He thrashed, but Erza and Gray held him on. I blinked rapidly while he was still obviously alive, clearing my vision enough to tell for sure when it was time to let go.

Soon he stopped thrashing wildly, or even jerking. When drool slipped out the side of his mouth I loosened my grip and felt his neck. No sound of breathing. Faint pulse. Good enough. If that hadn't gotten Ceo out, I wasn't going to take any further risks of committing murder just to be more thorough.

Erza mumbled something about being willing to do CPR, but screw her, that was my area of expertise. She put up no resistance whatsoever when I shewed her aside

From the way they turned their heads away, I assumed Gray and Erza weren't impressed with my keeping their friend from crossing over. They're friend could die and they had begun to marvel at who knows what. I just kept to myself, trying to save their criminal buddy's life while they paid me no heed. No thank you. No nothing. And no, I don't need constant gratification. But a little now and then _is_ nice…

Finally Jellal, or Ceo, whichever, started to breathe on his own. There were still marking on his stomach, so it was probably Ceo. Damn. I kept an eye of him long enough to be sure he'd keep that up, then turned to see what had been so darn fascinating to my companions.

Oh… well, that would do it. The sand just behind me had hardened into a stone circle, different runes having been etched into it. Or traced out in the sand before it was hardened. Seeing as something was still tracing in the sand just past the circle, that seemed the more likely of the two.

Erza looked over at me and Jellal long enough to confirm that he wasn't dead, then stepped around the stone to read what had been written into the sand.

"Thank you for your efforts. We have sealed Ceo," she read aloud. "Without the help of Rogue, we can't perfect the seal, but this should hold him for several days. We will restore the barriers we placed on your guild to protect Rogue. When possible, we will seal Ceo completely. Until then, keep him from running into further danger." Her lips kept moving after she stopped, eyes running across the message again. "If that could keep _any_ lord demon out..."

"If we explain what's going on to the Rune Knights then we can keep Jellal at the guild at least until this blows over. We'll have to find a way to help him escape _that_ when the time comes," Gray decided. "For now, let's get him away from here."

I started to protest, eyes darting to the water, but the glow of the marking on Jellal's stomach caught my eye. I doubted his created heat the way mine had, but if that was anything like Grisia's mark, being so close to Ceo had to hurt something awful. I'd already gotten swimming in that day. Any more would have to wait.


	41. Zeref is useless

I was left out of planning Rogue's rescue. Planning requires you be able to sit down next to everyone and hear their plans. Rogue wasn't around to fall back and catch me up either. He still would have done that for me, I liked to think. All things considered, he didn't seem too bothered with the fact that I'd lied about who I was, but that hardly mattered while he wasn't around. I sat back and watched from afar while the pink haired girl, the blonde, and presumably Natsu's ghost worked out what to do once they found the lord demons, with different plans depending on which demons and what situation they might be in. Ecilan and Elmairy were both still in spectral forms. There wasn't much they could do either way

Once they seemed set on a plan they took off again, leaving me to struggle to keep up. Had running always been a weakness of mine? I don't know. People had often run from me, but I never had to do it much. Maybe that was why I was so poor at it.

At least they slowed after dark. We were still in a woodsy area, and even walking at a brisk pace there was a risk of tripping over something.

Nights were starting to get chilly. I'd need to move to a warmer climate soon.

Following them while they walked wasn't hard at all, but after having been on the move all day I was still relieved to see them come to a stop. They crept up behind a bush and peered out, and the urge to sneak up behind them and see what they were looking at was… well, not overwhelming. I preferred them alive to having my curiosity sated. It was strong, though.

Soon after that the two split up, the rosette circling around whatever they'd seen from the north while the blonde went south. Was I supposed to wait there? It would have been nice if they'd made some effort to tell me. It wasn't like they'd die if the wrote out a message in the dirt.

The blonde's hushed whispers were too soft for me to hear. I could only see her lips move. But I could hear the muddled voice of Natsu—of Natsu's spirit—much louder as he responded to what she said. I followed her.

"From the back… melt… and he won't…" Natsu's voice faded in and out. I sped up and followed behind a little closer, hoping to hear him reveal the plan. If my magic fired off, I would have enough warning to get back before she was hurt.

No, to be honest, if my magic had gone off then I would have completely given away her position.

The thought was almost enough to make me turn back, but horrible as it may sound, saving Rogue was more important than the safety of one of Natsu's friends. I sat down in the dirt and waited for them to move.

And waited.

Waited…

You'd think four hundred years of life would have given me greater patience. It was late, and I'd run a long way, and nothing was happening. I was practically dozing off by the time she finally acted. As it was, I had to rub the sleep from my eyes when I heard her crashing through that bush she'd been using as cover.

"Gate of the Golden Bull!"

These girls had a plan worked out. Were they counting on me to help them? Maybe. Most likely not. I hoped not. If they were, then they were dead whether I helped or not. There was also the detail of them knowing I was the Black Mage Zeref so with any luck they were hoping I wouldn't want to help.

I crept up to the blonde's old hiding spot and watched. They were both locked in combat with Siegrain, who seemed to have no problem handling them without Etherion. What did I know about this him again? The face looked familiar? One of my victims? I racked my brain, trying to come up with details. Yes. Someone from that cult, with ties to the man who'd wanted to abduct me almost a decade ago. Someone who turned out to be good at magic, and had tried to use Etherion in another vain attempt to gain me as an ally.

Some small part of me wanted to throttle him, but there must have been some detail I'd missed if my demons had reported that he was a victim. They'd at least been accurate about his talent for magic. The blonde girl had already been knocked out, and the rosette wasn't fairing any better on he own. I could hear Natsu crying out as well, in sync with burns that would streak across Siegrain's clothes, but the man switched tactics when he realized there was an invisible assailant. He began to glow and darted about erratically.

A spell that enhanced speed and reaction time. Interesting. Not something I'd ever need to use, but I took note of it anyway. I can't help but study new spells I see.

Now that I looked at him closely, Siegrain looked like a spell himself.

And thinking about it, that victim's name had begun with a J.

That's what I got for relying on second hand information! So this was just a man with ties to the lord demons. A man who'd already tried to capture Rogue once and let me be imprisoned in a block of ice. Well, now he was a dead man.

I still had the self-control not to attack while the rosette was in the way, but as soon as Siegrain managed to disable her I joined the fray. This man might have been a powerful sorcerer, but I had no love for anyone who thought fondly of _me_ , and if killing someone like that was what it took to keep Rogue safe, and to keep Lucia from coming to this world, then so be it. I had a million spells that could snuff him out, and for good measure I cast the strongest I had that I knew the girls wouldn't get caught up in.

At my will, Siegrain was engulfed in a torrent of black power. I heard him yell, but refused to let myself look away. It wasn't like I could see through the darkness and watch the magic drain him away, and I had to keep focused enough on the spell to keep it from hitting Rogue as well. Siegrain I could live with killing, but exposing Rogue, whose only crime was that he'd been born to the father he had, to a spell that sucked the life force from a person… I couldn't do that.

The magic waved in my hesitation, and I dispelled it before it could go wild. Rogue was unharmed, which was good and fine, but Siegrain showed no sign that he'd been effected either.

"Zeref…" he gaped. "You came. You came again… I didn't think…" He looked around before tossing Rogue out of the area of battle. That made things easier for me. "Can't have him dying now. Zeref, I've always-"

I threw another spell at him, this one stronger, faster acting. As long as I dispelled it before someone else was caught in the attack…

But when that spell dispersed on its own, Siegrain stood unharmed.

"I see… You want to summon Lucia too?" He asked me. He asked me with a grin like I hadn't just tried to kill him twice. "No wonder you keep getting in Ecilan's way."

"And yours," I pointed out.

"What? No. No of course not. Zeref… if you wish me to…" he got down on one knee

"I'm not summoning Lucia. Return Rogue to me." If that's 'what I wished of him', then he ought to obey.

"I…" Siegrain looked back to the buses where he'd thrown Rogue. "No."

"It's not an option." I told him, walking forward. I had one spell I could always count on to kill. "You will let Rogue go." And even if Rogue was immune, this man was no angel, it had to harm him. "If you don't I will kill you." If I put myself just close enough to the girls that I would be concerned for them.

Three steps away from Siegrain it triggered. I cringed and stumbled back, clutching my head as power welled up without my approval. Without my _direct_ approval. For once my power was working with me.

_I was far enough away from those girls, wasn't I?_

Too late to think about it then. I couldn't hold it in any longer. Falling to my knees, I let the magic welling up beneath my skin burst forth, rushing out in all directions, withering grass, trees. An owl fell down and landed to the left of me.

That's right. No matter what. I could always count on my rogue magic to kill anything that came to close to me.

Except this time. Because Siegrain stood there, watching me with the same strange blue eyes as before. "Kill _me_? Are you sure?"


	42. Jellal would rather not move

Despite being assured that I was far from the first person that day to have trouble keeping up with everyone, I still felt pathetic for it.

In my defense, I wasn't the one who covered my body with splotches of raw skin, drained all of my magic, and broke a few ribs. I was still the one who had to try and keep pace with everyone else while dealing with all that. Hardly seemed fair, but I never figured that lord demons were in the business of playing fair.

My foot fell on a rock mid stride. Not a sharp rock, but a rock that stuck out of the ground far enough to dig into one of my more unfortunately placed wounds. For as much as I wanted to kill Ceo just then, I had to give his props for having been able to move around so easily with all the injuries he'd let me take. I could barely stand when I felt pain flash up my leg.

"Jellal, are you alright following us?" Erza asked. "If your injuries are too severe, I can carry you. Can't I, Sting?"

"Fuck you."

"I'm fine," I gasped. "Just… a moment…"

They waited. Even though I could see they all wanted to get me away from a demon I was still marked by, and despite the fact that they were all eager to get back to everyone else they needed to stop. I put on my best fake smile and swallowed back any complaints. I wasn't going to be so weak as to ask _Erza_ to carry me. I'd sooner die.

I succeeded in running four more steps before my legs gave out.

Being carried by Gray wasn't that much better, but as he slung me over his back and ran alongside the others I decided that it probably wasn't worth killing myself out of shame.

"Sorry if my grip is a little weak," he told me. "Grisia attacked me earlier, and I'm a bit charred at the moment." He held up a blackened arm to prove it, and I resolved to crawl into a hole and die after all. The only thing I'd managed to do since getting involved with the lord demons was make everything worse. I'd found Ceo's amulet for Genesis and even given them their first full power demon. Being a burden to Gray was the high point so far.

…But why did it feel like I'd gone and let Ecilan out too? I closed my eyes and tried to focus on that feeling, prodding at it until I pulled up vague memories of the incident. All my memories since Ceo took over me fell into two categories. The first group were all bare. Glimpses of images and sounds that I couldn't begin to piece together. The second were just… vague. Dreamy, like I was watching it through a veil. There was no sense of touch as I picked up an amulet, as I pressed it against stone, as I watched a blue mist seep out. All I felt was a chill. I saw a lot, though, even through the haze of my vision. I saw all the spells that Erza and her friends threw at me, saw the magic in them more clearly than the ice and swords being summoned, and if I focused hard enough of the memory, I could make out what was said.

"Siegrain…"

"What about him?" Erza asked.

I opened my eyes. "Siegrain. I have a memory of you calling me that."

"From the tower? Jellal, I know you aren't feeling well, but now isn't the time for one of your guilt-"

"From… no… it's not in the tower. The room looked familiar, but…" I played the memory again. No good. Magic stood out in my vision when I looked back on the incident, but anything non magical was blurred, like my eyes hadn't even properly registered it in the first place. "I don't know. Somewhere cold. A room with a lord demon…"

"Ecilan's chamber," Gray told me.

"Yes!" Of course, I'd been in there two days before I was taken. "Ah… but… that can't be right. I can still remember exploring that room just fine, but Levy and Wendy were there. In this memory, it was Lucy instead."

Gray looked to Erza, who nodded and told me, "You must be seeing Siegrain's memories."

"Erza, Siegrain isn't real," I told her patiently. "I made him up, remember?"

"Your spell came to life. It has a mind of its own," Gray elaborated. "And Etherion. Apparently it got that one when you had it keep the tower from killing us all. Good job."

Well, that explained why I hadn't been able to pull off a thought projection in years. "If my spell has been self-aware for so long, how come this is the first I've heard of it? Where has it been?"

"We don't know," Erza said. "He showed up at the guild the day after you did, pretending he was you and wanting to see the ruins again. He let Ecilan out, and the two of them have been causing us trouble since. Although it is strange, now that you mention it. Siegrain is capable of firing Etherion. It seems unlikely that someone with power like that and a face like… ah… yours… would go unnoticed by the council. If you can glimpse his memories, maybe you could figure it out."

If he'd been wandering around the wilderness like I had, then I doubted I'd be able to differentiate between our memories, even if his felt more like dreams that actual events.

Although if those dreams… dreams of men in lab coats… men in lab coats who I'd seen escaping the Shadow Alp facility…

"I let him out."

"Yeah. He's _your_ _spell_ ," Sting told me.

All those torture dreams had been Siegrain's memories. All those nightmares I'd woken up from the past seven years. It wasn't a matter of sympathy for Siegrain that made bile rise in my throat. Just thinking of anyone truly living through that…

"If you can see his memories, can you see what he's up to right now?" Gray asked.

I shut my eyes and tried again, pulling up memories of wandering through woods while talking with a pale blue mist, of spying on Rogue and plotting an attack, of sitting on a large ice structure and watching…

"He's encountered Zeref."

"Yeah, we all did. He and Rogue got chummy, apparently," Gray grumbled.

"Wait. _What?_ What did I miss?" Sting asked. Thank God I wasn't the only one left out of the loop there.

Zeref! Zeref was on the loose, active even. And a magic clone I hadn't realized I had until forty-five seconds ago had managed to capture him, if only temporarily.

"How did Siegrain become self-aware?"

"Etherion, as far as we can tell," Erza told me. "Are you sure you're okay to come with us?"

"Are there any Rune Knights patrolling the area?"

"There are Rune Knights anywhere that Genesis acts out."

"Then it does me more harm than good to stay in place and rest," I told her. "But about Siegrain…" What about Siegrain? I had a magic clone with Etherion at his fingertips, a lord demon as his best friend, and my face to raise the capture reward for. "Is there any plan to… do something about him?"

Erza shook her head. "He seems largely immune to physical harm, although Grisia managed to burn him so he's not invincible. Ecilan was protecting him the second time we came across him too, so he must have _some_ weakness we're not aware of. I hate to say it, but if you can cancel the spell then you should. He can teleport so we can't hold him, and his alliances and abilities make him too dangerous."

Cancel the spell. It sounded simple, but it bothered me too. It the spell was thinking for itself, then to dispel it… I would be committing murder. I'd killed criminals before, but never ones that I could be considered the parent off—and I was never thinking of Siegrain as my child again. Besides, there was a difference between doing what was necessary to stop a man who killed for fun and putting an end to someone whose life had consisted largely of being tortured in the name of science.

"Maybe I can talk him down."

"The bastard tried to kidnap Rogue," Sting told me, as if I hadn't seen the incident through Siegrain's eyes. "If a spell isn't serving it's caster's purpose, you dispel it and don't bother with it again."

"No," I decided. "If Siegrain is my thought projection, his personality is based on mine. I'm proof that he can be convinced not do to harm. Even if there's no other way, I wouldn't want to kill him."

Gray nodded his approval, inadvertently smashing the back of his head into my nose in the process and mumbling an apology.

"Still seems like it would be easier to be rid of him," Sting mumbled.

"Unless you're in the habit of trying to murder people who harm your friends—" He faked a cough. I didn't press. "In any case, I've been in a coma and thrown into a magic sealing prison cell since the Tower of Heaven incident. If Siegrain survived that, my magic may not be so strongly linked to him that I _can_ dispel him. I'll try if I absolutely have to, but don't count on me having a will _or_ a way."

"I'll find a way then," Sting decided.

Gray fumbled around with me, trying to free his good arm without dropping me on the ground. When Erza saw him struggling she reached out and smacked Sting for him.

"Thank you," Gray told her. To Sting, he added, "Stop running your mouth and use that nose of yours to make sure we're going the right away."

-o-

We passed through beach and into forest. The shade felt nice. Being able to sum up the majority of my trip as 'shade felt nice' felt pathetic. Erza and Gray went through another series of rounds assuring me that it was fine and I wasn't the one at fault for me being injured. "At least _you_ need to be carried because of a wound," Erza added. "Should we give Gray a break?"

My heart plummeted. Being carried by someone else with an injury was bad enough.

Gray shook his head. "I'm in the same boat as Jellal. Staying away from lord demons. I'll keep the two of us close, but we're heading towards Elmairy, so I'm not going to be fighting anyway. Conserving my energy would be wasting it."

I wasn't able to contain the sigh of relief. Gray didn't contain his snicker either, so I stayed silent for the rest of the trip, digging up what of Siegrain memories I could to excuse myself.

I was jolted from the practice when Gray came to a sudden stop, cursing and stepping back into a bush. He ducked down to take cover behind it, and I crawled off of him so I wouldn't stick out anyway.

The branches brushing against my wounds hurt. I clenched my teeth and did my best to ignore it. Not too hard to pull off, when a sudden wave of magic withers every plant in front of your hiding spot.

Gray cursed again. "Zeref."

 _Here_? I lifted my head just a little to get a better view, and saw… myself. Almost myself. The eyes were too blue. Too light. Like the lacrima that had been fused with Etherion. Who knew how much of that the spell had been contaminated by.

It was Siegrain. It had to be. Siegrain and the boy I recognized from his memories—from Ultear's description—as Zeref. He looked… young. Etherion and the black mage. One way or the other, it looked like I'd have one fewer problems to deal with in a moment.

Then Siegrain cocked his head to the side and asked "Kill _me_? Are you sure?"

Well, between the two I'd thought of the black mage as the bigger problem anyway.

"What are you?" Zeref demanded.

Siegrain looked up for a moment. _Considering it_. I could all but hear him weighing his options. "Your number one fan," he settled on.

And that was where I drew the line.

"Wait a second!" I called, standing up. It wasn't until I had both looking straight at me, and particularly until I felt a wave of hatred crashing from my link to Sieg, that I realized that interrupting someone with death magic and someone with Etherion, particularly while I was out of power, wasn't the smartest move.

Of course, the only thing I'd managed to do since getting involved with the lord demons was make everything worse


	43. Siegrain and Jellal have trouble classifying their relationship

'Wait a second?'

Wait… I knew that voice. That was _my_ voice. That was my voice coming from a man with the exact same face as me, albeit slightly older. That was _him_. Not Ceo in his body. _Him_.

My next move was a no brainer. I couldn't justify wasting Etherion on someone as weak as that bastard was just then, but for as weak as _he_ was, the magic I'd learned from _him_ would be enough. Heck, it would fatal for anyone.

Or it would have been, if Zeref hadn't teleported into the path of my attack. I tried to pull back, but he was too close to the spell for me to redirect it in time. It hit him square in the chest, and he tumbled back into the bastard.

Zeref rolled up first, looking bruised after taking the spell I'd used on so many Genesis members as if it has only grazed him. _He_ got up much more slowly, but I was focused on Zeref again. That spell had killed the people it grazed. Killed them in seconds. It wasn't weak. _He'd_ learned it from the Book of Zeref when he was little. It should have been fatal. So should spending a week sealed in ice.

"I see. So you're immortal too."

Zeref recoiled. "Too?"

I smiled for him and nodded. "Well, I don't age. I don't really take damage either. I haven't completely confirmed that I'm immortal though," which was skipping over the whole anti-magic thing. "Please get out of my way. I want to see if I don't need my caster to be alive in order to continue existing."

He bit his lip, thinking for a moment. Then his eyes shifted, narrowing and becoming red as his gaze developed into a glare. "I'd rather test that second claim."

"Wait!" _He_ reached for Zeref's shoulder, but hesitated, then drew his hand back. "Wait… Siegrain, what you're doing… I need you to stop it."

Oh, that was _rich_.

When I didn't respond, _he_ frowned and stepped out in front of Zeref. "Maybe a different approach. _Why_ are you doing this?"

The only reason I can think of that I gave him a straight answer was that I was surprised he'd cared to ask. "Lucia can make me human," I told him. "If I help Ecilan draw him out, I can become human. Don't think I have to obey you just because you're my caster."

"You look human enough."

"Don't patronize me. I'm a spell."

 _He_ took a shaky step forward, then another. I thought _he'd_ come all the way up to me, but on the third _he_ wobbled and almost fell over, and didn't try to come any further. "I think you look human."

"Well then, you're in the minority. I'm magic with a mind of its own."

The bastard shook his head. "You're a living creature in your own right. Thinking of you as if you're only a part of my magic feels wrong."

Zeref coughed.

Ignoring Zeref, _he_ continued. "Don't call me 'your caster'. It's more like…"

"Deadbeat dad?" I asked, mockingly. From the bushes, I heard laughter.

 _He_ stared at me. Just stared. Didn't try to say anything to that. Nothing encouraging. Nothing disproving. Nothing at all.

I snarled.

"You don't like me," _he_ said finally.

"You just noticed?"

 _He_ nodded. I readied another fatal spell as _he_ looked me up and down. _He_ was shaking already, and all he was doing was standing. I was almost wasting my energy on him, but _he_ was certainly worth the overkill.

"I didn't hand you over to those men," _he_ said. I hadn't expected that. My concentration shattered. The spell I'd been summoning fell apart. Now I had to be the one who was just staring, and he waited patiently to see if I'd respond. I didn't. I wouldn't. "I didn't hand you over to anyone. I was in a coma when they took you away."

"Well you sure as hell weren't when you broke out of jail," I told him. "Thanks for stopping to get me on your way out."

"I didn't know you were there."

"Oh?"

"I…" he paused, waving his hand around as he searched for the right word. It looked like the gesture took a lot of effort. "I can see your memories."

"So it goes both ways after all." _Him_ saying it didn't was probably the only thing that could had convinced me not to murder and gut him.

"But I didn't realize that's what I was seeing until recently," _he_ added.

Like hell that was going to fly. "You didn't realize?" I repeated, my voice light. I was going to keep at least a little composure while dealing with him. "Well why the hell _not_? I sure realized what was going on when you broke out and left me behind!"

I ended up screaming almost the entire thing.

"That's hardly fair," Jellal told me. "Even if I had known about you, I had no part in—"

" _Oh_ , it's not _fair_? Then what is? You getting off scot free for leaving me to rot? And now you think you can come back around acting all friendly? That whole 'I want to think of your differently' bullshit would have done a lot more good _before_ the rest of the world made it clear they don't want something like me!"

"About that, are you sure is wasn't—"

"I don't fucking _care_ what excuse you have now!" I shrieked. "I don't care! You left me! You left me and no matter how many times you _saw_ what they did to me you never did a damn thing about it!"

"That lab was destroyed when—"

"Shut up! Just _shut up_!"

 _He_ stumbled back as I pulled forth all the Etherion I had in me. I didn't care if I disappeared. As long as I took him out too!

"Stop this at once!"

One of the people who'd hidden in the bushes and laughed charged out, coated from head to toe in white armor with two large shields attached to each side. My first thought was that the lady wearing it was an idiot if she thought that was enough to protect her from Etherion. My second was that I couldn't try and kill Erza with Etherion. Not again.

Not again?

I did what she said. I stopped, hands held about my head where my Etherion swirled, eager to burst forward and kill this woman I'd only spoken with once since becoming independent. I'd only spoken to her once, but the thought of killing her, although somewhat _right_ , was too painful to act on. Why? Leftover feelings from _him_? I did get his desire to create Paradise with Zeref just before _he_ lost the will to do so.

The thought that _his_ feelings were stopping me made me feel queasy. He _didn't_ control me. He _didn't_. I had to have my own reason for not wanting to harm her.

"Siegrain, if you lay a finger on him, I'll dismantle you," Erza threatened. "I'll strip you of your magic bit by bit until you slip into the ethers."

Siegrain. That was it. She was the one who let me know that I had my own name.

I couldn't hurt the woman who'd been the first to call me by my name, even if it was a name _he_ picked for me. She was standing in front of the bastard, eyes daring me to try something. I looked away, to Zeref. He'd stepped back, distancing himself from all of us, and eyeing me like a cheetah waiting for the lame prey to separate from its herd.

They wouldn't let me kill _him_. I stepped back, intending to grab Rogue from where I'd left him and go, but Zeref had circled around to block my path.

Fine. As long as Rogue kept being put in harm's way, Lucia would eventually be too tempted to come no matter how minor the threat.

I fled.


	44. No one has time to rest

Jellal's impulse when Siegrain triggered Meteor was to cast the spell himself and fly after his duplicate, but when he tried to reposition his foot for a better takeoff his legs gave out beneath him. Gray and Erza were at his side immediately, helping him back to his knees and letting him know just how stupid he'd been to think it would be a good idea to stand up like he had.

Zeref watched them. Just long enough to see that Jellal was okay, then walked off. Sting followed too close behind. Zeref didn't comment. He was still seething over Siegrain.

He'd worried Siegrain may have grabbed Rogue. Meteor was a fast spell, and it was difficult to track what all its caster did. Searching in the direction Siegrain had fled still seemed his best shot, and it proved to be the right choice. Zeref had only strayed fifty feet from the clearing when he found Rogue, curled up and struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Are you alright?" Zeref asked. When he brushed aside Rogue's hair to look for head wounds, the half-demon grinned.

"Get away from him!"

Sting very suddenly became the center of Zeref's attention. He was a dumb blond indeed to shove the black mage Zeref aside. Again, Zeref didn't comment. Rogue's eyes seemed to focus upon hearing Sting. Not the sharp awareness of an alert man, but not the happy trance of the chaos craving demon on a high.

"Between myself and Siegrain, you must have had too much in one go," Zeref decided.

"Jellal was impressive," Rogue mumbled as Sting pulled him into a sitting position and felt for broken bones. "Everything he said made Siegrain's anger more intense. Can we get them together again?"

"Let's not," Sting said.

Zeref backed off as Sting hoisted Rogue up. When Sting carried Rogue back to the others he stayed in place, listening as they discussed plans to get back to their guild. He couldn't very well walk into a bustling town, but he doubted this Magnolia place wouldn't have any sort of wilderness around it that he couldn't hole up in while he waited for something else to come after Lucia's son.

"Jellal can't take much more travel," he heard the one he believed to be Erza arguing. "He might be able to heal on the move, but not if he has to be a part of every potential hazard we encounter. And Gray, we need to get you as far away from Elmairy as we can."

"I'm not going back to the ocean."

"Which is why you'll be staying in the guildhall instead. Lucy said there's some sort of barrier around the building to keep out lord demons. If Sting was safe from Grisia in there, then it should protect you and Rogue too."

"Fine. I'll carry Lucy," Gray said. "You can hold onto Jellal—your grip is tighter than mine. Sting, can you carry Merudy?"

"Before or after Rogue is willing to walk on his own?"

"'M fine…" Rogue muttered. Zeref peered into the clearing to confirm this. Lucia would ring his neck if he ignored any harm that had come to Rogue while the boy was only fifty feet away. He looked okay. He was coming out of his stupor, now alert enough to occasionally glance towards the source of the faint presence of angels.

Of course there were angels. They had two pieces of perfect bait and a tool to help them imprison anyone that fell for the trap. Zeref vaguely recalled Lucia recounting how far away a demon could spot an angel from, but if the angels' presence warded lord demons off, then that wasn't something he felt inclined to consider a negative.

Sting grabbed the pink haired girl, Merudy, and the Fairy Tail wizards took off. Zeref followed behind, intending to continue playing mute.

He broke his 'no commenting' streak when he felt an angel fall back in line with him.

"I'm going to keep my distance."

The angel drew closer.

"Lucia wants Rogue kept out of harm's way. I'm trying to keep him from having to take care of that himself. We're on the same side."

The presence vanished.

-o-

Sting and Rogue checked out the guildhall first, scanning it to verify that the Rune Knights had, if not given up on monitoring them, at least cut down sufficiently on the number of people they kept around the guild. After verifying that the coast was clear, Merudy carried Jellal in.

The first to react to their return was Ultear, who sprung up and began searching Merudy for damage worse than the bruises peeking out of her clothes. "Don't be so careless!" she hissed, taking Jellal away as she did so. "And don't carry this lazy bum when you're injured."

"He's much worse off," Merudy assured Ultear, grinning at her mother-in-spirit's priorities.

Ultear looked at Jellal, and noticing that he was bleeding on her, mumbled an apology before hurrying him off to the infirmary in the back of the guild. Wendy hopped up after her.

Next came the awkward part. Everyone crowded around the remaining members of the group and started asking what had happened, which very quickly led to the reveal of Lucia's son. Rogue didn't wait for the rest of his guild to have time to process that before slipping out of the crowd and sneaking upstairs. As the Shadow Dragon Slayer, his stealth was something he took particular pride in, so it was quite a blow to his pride to see that Sting had followed him.

"Do you need something?"

"You never told me about being a half-demon."

"No, fish boy, I didn't."

Rogue clung to the guilt that dripped off of Sting, hoping it would drown out the concern blasting at him from the first floor. Too bad the hypocrisy in their secrets kept Sting from feeling truly awful about what he'd done.

"You did try to make me eat melon for a week."

A vague feeling of concern and an idea about a desert camping trip flashed through Rogue's mind, amusing and gone all too fast. The other thoughts started coming again. _Is he safe? Craving chaos… he wouldn't do anything nasty for a quick fix, would he?_ He shook his head and plastered his neutral look over his face, pretending he wasn't picking up any thoughts from downstairs.

"Lucy says you read minds," Sting said after Rogue had been staring blankly without saying a word for too long. "Do you?"

Rogue nodded. "And feelings."

"Ever use if to spy on people?"

"I don't have much choice. If there's a way to turn it off, I'd be doing that right now."

Sting glanced down at the first floor, where Macao was glancing nervously up at them. "I think we still have some unpacking to do. If a lord demon comes Zeref can warn us to head towards the guild hall. There should be fewer thoughts to pick up at home."

"None, actually."

Sting snickered and playfully smacked Rogue's arm. "Crack a dumb blond joke and I'll punch your for real."

-o-

Sting and Rogue only returned to the guild the next evening when Erza came threatening to kidnap Rogue.

"There's a barrier to protect you around the guild, and none here. We're going to do this like we did before. You sleep somewhere where you aren't so vulnerable."

"I'd prefer to stay here for the time being."

"Not an option."

When she grabbed his wrist and began pulling Rogue towards the guild, all Sting did to help was push Rogue from behind so he wouldn't get himself hurt trying to resist. Personal experience had taught him that if Erza was going to force you to go somewhere, you went, and you went at her pace.

The second she passed through the doors of the guild and released his wrist, Rogue went over to the corner to sulk, ignoring everyone's requests for him to join them, even Sting's. He ignored their concerns that he might snap and somebody's fear that he was going to make them eat melon. It was only when Frosch waddled into the guild looking for him that he stopped pretending he was completely alone in the room.

Acknowledging another life form made it hard to pretend the rest weren't there. At least the absolute lack of noise from Frosch's mind helped sooth him while he still picked up everyone else's concern. So long as _someone_ wasn't anxious near him. He'd _known_ it was a bad idea to let anyone know he was a half-demon.

As the anxiety regarding him faded and conversations and thoughts focused more on the lord demons and less on one's child, Rogue moved closer to the rest of the guild. The potential to use Rogue as bait came up from time to time. Gray not quite as often, although his name was tossed around.

"We shouldn't have to risk any of our guild mates to stop these creatures," Makarov said after leaving Rogue out in the open was suggested for the sixth time. "It was with Etherion aiding you that you idiots managed at the beach. If we have a lord demon and Genesis come down on us again, then we could defeat if that's what it took to save our comrades, but to put those comrades in such a dangerous position to start with is unacceptable. For the time being, our safest course of action is to follow the angels' orders and wait for the lord demons to come to them."

"Genesis is busy," Juvia reported. "Every last member was ordered by Elmairy yesterday evening to help capture 'the renegade spell'. Juvia was asked to help as well."

"The last of the Rune Knights in Magnolia left chasing Siegrain as well," Mira recalled. "Orders from up high. They even had permission to go across the border. It sounded like the council had been trying to keep him secret, but when they heard Genesis was kicking down doors demanding to know if people had seen a living spell they must have decided that recovering him was more important than keeping him under the wraps."

Makarov nodded. "It will be enough trouble for them if someone truly notices that the lord demon who sparked the Genesis movement came from our country. If a self aware, volatile spell the government was involved in becomes an international incident as well, Fiore may have trouble maintaining neutrality."

"Era knew about him?" Erza asked.

"They collected him even before I was arrested."

Everyone looked up to see Jellal approach.

"Get back to bed," Erza ordered.

"I'm feeling much better today," he insisted, smiling. The smile didn't last for long, though. The second he lost interest in calming Erza the corners of his mouth slipped down. "Siegrain is in trouble?"

"Juvia was told that Genesis has sent every anti-mage they have after him. It seems he can be dispelled, Etherion or not."

"Speaking of Etherion, Porlyusica said you had Etherion _poisoning_ yesterday," Erza insisted. "Get. Back. In. Bed."

"But if he's dispelled—"

"Then we have one fewer problems." Makarov interrupted. "Siegrain may be a living being in his own right, but the fact is that he's one of the biggest threats we have to deal with just now. Bigger than the lord demons, in fact, since we lack a barrier to keep _him_ out. Not to mention he's already captured Rogue twice. If there were a way to save him without putting ourselves at risk, I would gladly do so. Since he is the risk, I can't afford to let my children near him."

Jellal tensed, moved as if to speak against the master, then stopped, going slack when he caught Erza's warning glare in the corner of his eye. "If that's the case…"

"It is."

Turning on his heels, Jellal marched back to the infirmary. Rogue silently thanked him for coming up. The unease he'd stirred in the others at the thought of leaving someone for dead, not to mention the fury boiling beneath his skin, had been soothing.

As the topic turned back to what to do should Ceo come looking for Jellal, Rogue felt that fury turn into impatience. That was more interesting that hearing someone suggest he be used as bait for the seventh time.

"Excuse me," Rogue muttered. Sting nodded to okay his leaving and the debate carried on without him. He was to hide in the guild until the whole affair had passed. Makarov had already made that clear. What did it matter if he missed part of the plan?

He knocked on the infirmary door as he stepped in. "Jellal? Are you alright?"

From his bed, Jellal looked up at Rogue and smiled. No wonder Erza had such perverted thoughts when she was around the man, if he could look like _that_ when he wanted to.

"I was wondering if you'd ever come," Jellal said. "Do you mind doing me a favor? From a moral standpoint, you're the worst person to ask, but from a practical one, you're the only person I can."

-o-

There had been a bit Jellal wanted that Rogue _hadn't_ been able to do. Namely, getting out of the guild hall so he could go fulfill the actual request. Jellal had covered that aspect. While Rogue snuck out, Jellal had gone back into the main room to try and argue with everyone for Siegrain again, this time trying to put himself in the front line. Rogue had snickered at what parts he heard. It had been harder for them to convince Jellal not to do it when his own adult life was the only one being put at risk—and from all the fear he picked up from Erza, putting his life at risk seemed to be a favorite past time of Jellal's. In fact, the man almost seemed bent on convincing the guild to let him go, but then he wouldn't have sent Rogue out if he'd really intended to save Siegrain on his own.

Climbing out a window just like he had the last time he'd snuck away felt a little dull. Going through town was less exciting without Frosch. She'd agreed to stay behind this time. He wasn't going anywhere that would put him in danger, but she'd be in a lot if she tagged along.

The field where they'd left Zeref before coming into town already looked worse for wear. Zeref himself had picked a more sheltered area to sit down and rest his eyes. Rogue didn't blame him. The trails the black mage could leave were bad enough. He'd never even thought of how obvious it would be that _something_ was wrong if Zeref tried to stay stationary.

Bending down, he gave the boy… man… elder—whatever he counted as—a light shove. Zeref stirred and looked up, drowsiness casting momentary doubt of his identity before the chaos enveloped around the man began to assault Rogue's senses.

"Did something happen?" Zeref asked once Rogue had fought down the urge to sit down besides the black mage and drink him in.

"Siegrain is in trouble."

"The one who looks like that other man?"

It must have been fun to live under a rock for centuries. "The one who used Etherion. Jellal was hoping you could help with him."

"How? As much as I'd like to, I can't kill him," Zeref pointed out.

"Help with saving him," Rogue clarified. "He thinks he can calm Siegrain down."

Zeref considered it. His awareness of Siegrain had been vague while trapped in ice, but he'd gotten a general idea of the man from fighting on the beach and in the woods, and it had looked like there were some issues he needed working out with Jellal. _Could_ they be worked out? After a certain point, a person was too far gone.

"He'll be fine. He's immortal save for possibly needing Jellal alive," Zeref decided.

"He's not immune to anti-magic," Rogue insisted. "Jellal's been observing Siegrain's memories. If enough of the magic being used to hold him together is spent up or canceled out, he'll disappear. The government ordered testing on him. They've known about him and his weakness for years. He told Genesis about his weakness himself when they admitted him into their group. Now that he's causing them both trouble, they both have anti-mages chasing after him. He did a lot of fighting yesterday. He has to be worn down."

Zeref pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his chin in them and adding about ten years to the gap between how old he looked and how old he was. After thinking for a moment, he decided to inform Rogue, "The angel Natsu had been taking direct orders from contacted me this morning. Elmairy and Ecilan's match reached a draw and they both fled before the angels could reach them. They're hoping Elmairy will come to the guild first, so they've focused on chasing Ecilan away." He paused. "I say focused, but they only have two angels on him. If he figures that out, he could slip away. He probably will in the next day or two. The others are still guarding the guild hall. Or you. Do you know where Siegrain is?"

"Jellal thinks he's just past the Fioren boarder, in Bosco. The Rune Knights have clearance to pursue him even if he leaves the country, so they must have known he was headed that way."

"Genesis—"

"Has already been much further north than that."

Zeref nodded. "Ecilan is being pressed south. They couldn't have met up."

"No."

"He's a worshipper, you know. This Siegrain. He _likes_ me."

"I think I like you in a much worse way."

"Probably." Zeref chuckled. "I think the apple fell far from the tree, in his case."

"Jellal worshipped you too," Rogue told him. He'd only gotten the full story from Sting the night before, wanting to know what all he'd missed, and why the heck they had a team mate with an evil magic clone. "But he's dedicated the last few years of his life to hunting you. Sending me to ask for help is an act of desperation."

Now _that_ made Zeref smile. Someone who wanted to stop him. Someone who could realize they'd done wrong and do something to make amends. Rogue saw the smile and wondered if Zeref was only amused by the story.

"If you don't want—"

"I'll go," Zeref decided. "There are _nine_ angels in one town. They don't need me keeping watch, and I'd hate for you to do something irrational like going to rescue your two time kidnapper yourself."

Since he'd agreed to help, Rogue refrained from telling Zeref that he wasn't that stupid.


	45. Siegrain is besieged on all sides

At least my lungs didn't ache. If I were human I'd be no more capable of breathing than I was just then.

That was the consolation I repeated to myself over and over as I ran. I'd stopped tripping some time yesterday evening. My feet were passing through branches and stones in my path now. They were taking turns chasing me and I didn't even know who they were, so I hadn't rested more than a few hours since _he_ had the nerve to talk to me. I was so tired I could see the ground more clearly than my feet. Using magic to try and escape them had only worn me down faster, and no matter how many times I'd bolted away I'd encountered another group trying to corner me. It felt like I'd fade away if I used any more energy, but I hardly had a choice.

Genesis had never been so organized. The ones in the uniforms kept knowing where to go to block me. When I outran them, I encountered Inherents of humanoids ready to dispel me or engage me until I wore myself to nothing. If I could only hold out until Ecilan—

My throat constricted. Ecilan hadn't come for me. I was half dead already and Ecilan wasn't doing a thing about it. He couldn't possibly be fighting Elmairy for so long.

Had I been abandoned? I _had_ left Lucia's kid behind when I wasn't in immediate danger. Was Ecilan cutting me lose because of that? But I still had his amulet! He wouldn't risk it not reforming if I faded away, would he?

My legs buckled, the fear of being on my own too heavy for me to stay up. I doubled over and clutched my shoulders, trembling and trying to tell myself to keep moving. Keep moving because whether he was coming of not, I'd be dead I stopped running. I'd be dead if I ran much longer, but I might live a few more days. A few more days for Ecilan to come for me or not. I still had his amulet so of course he would. He had to.

What did humans do to calm themselves? _He_ took deep breaths but… until I was human.

I just wanted to be human.

No way was I getting back on my feet. Not when all my strength was going towards keeping from completely falling apart. I'd finally gotten free of that awful place. I'd gotten to be outside and to see sunlight again and no one poked and prodded at me and made me scream in the name of science. I'd been able to eat if I wanted and sleep without having to worry about what anyone might do to my body while I was unconscious. And I'd been so close to becoming human. If I'd only taken Rogue with me at that time…

Maybe I was so far gone that they would look right through me when they caught up and not notice I was there. Or maybe the Etherion in me was a god dammed beacon for everyone trying to find me.

Nearby voices gave me the jolt of fear I needed to get back on my feet and run for it. And here I'd thought I was done being kicked around.

Light in the distance caught my eye, and I veered towards it. I'd been herded into an ambush once already, but this one looked like—yes! A town! My last time entering one hadn't gone so well, but pitiful looking as I must have been, maybe I'd be shown a little mercy.

My feet slowed, almost dragging, as they found cobbled street. I ducked into the first ally I saw, hiding behind a barrel and hoping that someone up there who wasn't too mad about my teaming up with Ecilan might have enough sympathy to let me go unnoticed.

Heavy footfall passed. I didn't look how to try and see whose it was. As the noise faded, I let my eyelids droop. Ecilan had to be coming. If I had the energy to aid him when he came, he might not be too mad that I'd left Rogue behind.

No one cared about how badly _he_ screwed up. _He_ got to torture a girl and still have her pinning for him. When I was human, maybe I could make a friend who didn't leave me for dead.

When I was human…

-o-

Someone screamed.

I opened my eyes. I felt better. A far cry from full strength, but no longer about to fall apart at the slightest touch. I had three… maybe four spells in me now. Whatever the situation, I could probably escape it. If I was lucky, I might not need magic to get away.

The screamer was a woman. Again. Pointing and screaming "Jellal! Somebody get the army! Jellal is—"

I jumped forward and put a hand over her mouth. A good, solid hand. I'd like to keep it from fading out, if possible.

More cried rang out, people seeing me and pointing and shouting _his_ name. Giving up on the woman, I let her go and ran for the exit to the ally way. A man tried to grab me. I ducked around him. No magic wasted so far. Another hand from a growing crowd caught hold of my coat. I yanked, but they didn't let go. No other immediate courses of action. I disappeared and reappeared as far away as I could, running again.

I only made it two more blocks before men ran out and formed a line to block my path. Armor-like uniforms. Soldiers, but not the ones who had chased me before.

"I'm not Jellal," I said.

"You're not?" one whose armor was slightly more adorned verified.

"I'm not."

"The you're the living spell?"

"Siegrain," I told them. "My name is Siegrain."

Their formation wavered as they exchanged whispers. The next one to speak didn't have the same commander look to him. "Fiore has requested we allow them entry to capture Jellal's look-alike, and that we hand you over should we find you."

"Oh." I blinked. "I see."

"We need you to come with us."

I nodded, smiled for them, and bolted. Meteor. They wouldn't be able to catch me if I went at my highest speed. I'd already used more than half the magic I'd recovered, but if I could only get away then it would be fine. I just needed to hold out until Ecilan found me. If he wasn't so disappointed that I had been cast aside.

Biggest mistake I'd made since I first realized I was being pursued: I flew right back the direction I'd come from. I didn't realize until I felt a sudden jolt run through me, ripping beneath my skin, tearing at me from the inside. I cried out in pain as my Meteor spell failed and I fell helplessly to the ground, skidding across the dirt and left twitching where I stopped. Everything was quickly going numb. Not the kind of numb where I lacked the senses necessary to feel them from the start. I couldn't feel my limbs already.

Anti-magic.

I looked up, vision swimming, and saw the void that that blasted magic type formed in my vision. The image waved. I felt myself flicker in and out.

There went at least one more spell use. And maybe my strength to run. Did I have it in me to blast my attackers away. I doubted I could do anything that would hold them off long enough to recover.

"About time," I heard someone say, or at least thought I did. My hearing was muddy. "Can't believe Gost gave us so much trouble with his so called special find. This bastard was something special alright."

Gost? Right. Gost. The one who'd given me orders when Genesis had pretended they could help me. I wanted to snarl at them. To rage. How _dare_ they speak ill of me when they'd been the ones who'd betrayed me first. But my body was still trying to assure itself that it was fully formed after passing though that wave of anti-magic. I wasn't sure I had vocal cords just then.

"What are you waiting for? He can be dispelled, so dispel him."

I had one spell left. One spell that might kill me when I used it. But if it was the chance or the guarantee…

I tried to summon up the energy to use my magic, and failed. I didn't have that kind of power left in me. I'd fall apart.

So I might as well go out with a bang. I shut my eyes and gathered up every last drop of Etherion in me, only to lose focus and let it slip away when someone swatted the back of my head.

"Who let this brat in?"

"Teleportation? But to pass through the anti-magic wall—"

"He'd have walked then teleported from inside it." Was there someone new? "He's standing over the spell. Kill him too."

"You shouldn't stand so close." My eyes snapped open. That voice! "I don't want to hurt you. Please, get away from here."

Somebody laughed. "This little brat thinks he can hurt us? What are adults teaching their kids these days?"

"Zeref?" I asked.

A hush fell over the group, then:

"No way. No fucking way is _that_ Zeref."

"Someone knock the brat out before the spell can recover!"

"Please! Run away. I can't hold it back much longer."

Was he talking to me? His magic hadn't affected my before. I squinted and tried to see what he was doing, but my vision was fading in and out. I squeezed my eyes shut instead, blinking heavily and hoping the images swaying in front of me would clear.

-o-

I never noticed myself losing consciousness, but I must have. If anyone asked, I'd have guessed it had been mid-morning when Genesis had almost caught me, but the moon was high in the sky when I opened my eyes.

"So you aren't dead after all."

I sat up. Right up. It felt good to have that kind of strength so fast after waking. Zeref sat a few feet away, warming his hands over a small fire. Stones had been built around it to keep some spreading into the dead, brown grass beneath.

"I don't go down easy," I said. It was true, but I hadn't looked it earlier. Maybe he hadn't gotten too close a look at me that morning.

"You looked pretty down yesterday," he told me. "Rogue said you were weak to anti-magic. After a whole day went by and you hadn't stirred, I thought that spell might have done you in. You weren't breathing. I almost left you alone today to look for a good burial site, but there seem to be two armies in the area around us."

"Genesis isn't exactly an army. They're only so organized."

"Not every nation is organized, but they often have a military all the same. If you want to count Genesis, there are three armies," Zeref amended. "In case you weren't dead, I didn't want to leave you. Moving you before I knew you were safe also seemed like a bad idea. Are you injured?"

In the fire light it was hard to tell. I pressed against my skin, and the burns Grisia had given me seemed gone. "No."

"Cold?"

"No."

He gestured for me to come up to the fire anyway. I obeyed. This was Zeref. This was Zeref and he'd come for me when Ecilan hadn't. I was going to obey him.

"Thank you," I told him after settling down next to him. I held my hands out toward the fire like he did, but felt nothing from it. "If you hadn't come—"

"Rogue asked," he told me, cutting me off. "Rogue… I suppose Jellal asked _him_ to ask me, but I came because Rogue asked."

I bristled. "Rogue and…"

"Jellal, yes." Zeref put his hands down and reached into what must have been a bag on his opposite side, pulling out a fistful of white cylinders. "Rogue said these were good for camping, but I don't eat often. If you're hungry, you can try one."

A vague, cloudy memory of the object came to me from Jellal's memory. I groped around for a long enough stick and, upon finding one, stabbed it through the things so I could hold them over the flame.

"You wouldn't have come if you hadn't been asked."

"We're not on the same side. I don't want to deal with Lucia again."

"Have you met him before?"

"Yes."

"He comes here, then? On his own?"

"Once every decade or two, if I haven't totally isolated myself, he will contact me. Physically appearing in this realm is rare. He's done it once to tell me about Rogue."

As I contemplated this, I reached forward and grabbed the first white cylinder off the stick, tossing it into my mouth. My sense of taste was dull. It must have been pure sugar for me to taste so much sweetness. This was not nutritional. Humans couldn't possibly survive off of it while camping. Rogue was a liar.

So was Ecilan, if Lucia came out on his own.

"Seems like you wouldn't even need to threaten Rogue."

"Rogue's power lets him know when he's in danger, but it also draws him towards that danger. If Lucia wants to ever see a grandchild, he wouldn't plunge the world into chaos. Not unless his child was even less likely to survive without him doing so."

"You could have agreed with me and never worried about me again," I let him know. "It's not like anyone's breathing down my neck telling me to grab him anymore."

"Ecilan will be back," Zeref said dismissively. What an honest evil wizard. Or maybe he meant to give me a false sense of hope.

"Well he has good timing."

The second cylinder caught on fire. I snatched it off the stick and tried to shake the already blackened object to get the flames off, but it burst open, a glob of white goo flying out and landing in the dirt while a charred thin outer layer was left in my hands. I stared at the goo and wondered what exactly Zeref was feeding me. Poison? Maybe not. He'd seemed just as surprised, and inspected one himself. It must have passed, because after a moment he pulled a few more cylinders from my bag and handed them to me. Since it didn't seem to matter if I put my hand in the fire or not, I held one out near the flames without the stick to hinder me.

"You don't burn?" Zeref asked.

"Not without a lord demon setting me on fire."

"There isn't much that can harm you, is there?" He looked me up and down. "It's annoying. For the first time in centuries I find someone, two people, who I can't kill, and one is out to harm the other. If you weren't an enemy, I'd be much more interested in seeing just how close to immortal you are."

Him and every damn human who thought it was fair to lock me in a laboratory basement or lie and lead me along so they could use my magic. I tossed the marshmallow into the fire and stood to leave.

"Stay put," Zeref ordered.

"Or what? You already said you can't kill me."

"No, but I can kill everything else." He gestured to the dead grass. "I haven't moved you, remember?"

Vaguely, I remembered the grass being green when I'd been attacked.

"Genesis and the armies of two separate nations are holding off on attacking you because they will die if they get too close to me. Because it matters to Jellal, and because what Jellal wants matters to Rogue, I will escort you to safety. If you chose to march to your death in the meantime, then you spare me the trouble of stopping you when they come to their senses."

I sat back down and watched with Zeref as the white cylinder burned, goo expanding out and hardening into a grotesque, black husk. Maybe Zeref wasn't so worthy of worship after all. It was going to be a long night.

"Don't pout," Zeref suggested. "I'm not killing everyone here unless I absolutely must, so we'll be waiting a while. Try to make it bearable."

Hopefully he hadn't been lying about Ecilan coming back.


	46. Rogue learns that no good deed goes unpunished

"My lungs hurts."

I'd noticed. Now that Sting's thoughts were less about concealing his half-breed nature from me and more about the pesky side effects that he'd had to cover up, I'd been picking up the reason behind his ever increasing desperation to swim.

And come to think of it, his being half-siren was something we still hadn't discussed, what, with the constant battle plan changes, the panic over Zeref vanishing, the huge scene Jellal and Erza had made with the former trying to leave, and all the fuss Sting had put up trying to take me home when I was still expected to stay behind the barrier. "There's a pool right out that door," I told him. It was meant to be a tease, but I sure paid for it. A half a dozen rushed, disgusted thoughts crashed into my mind, jumbling together in a perfectly incomprehensible mess before Sting voiced the problem aloud.

"Would you sit... in a room full of noxious fumes... and take deep breaths?"

"No," I muttered, rubbing the back of my head and trying to quell the headache that barrage of disdain had given me.

"So why would... you tell me to swim... in something like that?"

"It's the same?"

"Of course it's the same! I wouldn't have... brought it up if there wasn't—" He broke into a coughing fit.

I waited for Sting to stop and draw air back into his lungs, which did look painful, before asking, "If you're having trouble breathing, don't say so much at once. How long has it been since you swam?"

"Not since we… were at the beach."

Regular siren could only survive a few hours out of the ocean. I had no idea what Sting's exact limit was, but he was clearly pushing it. "Can you make it to the lake by yourself?"

He nodded, but he was nodding for somebody who could _feel_ his uncertainty. It felt good, but it worried me all the same. If Lector were still around then I'd trust him to get Sting there safely but… I wouldn't have trusted Frosch to do the same. I wouldn't trust Sting to look out for Frosch either, all things considered. That was unfair of me when I still picked up aching sadness from Sing if something reminded him of his companion, but I couldn't help it. Frosch was too precious to put in a situation that had proven to be dangerous to exceed before.

Which was why I left her behind when I snuck out the infirmary window so I could escort Sting to the lake. We'd heard from Lucy that the angels had lost track of Ecilan several days ago, but we'd also gotten word from Juvia of Genesis failing to capture Siegrain, so Jellal pretended not to notice me crawling out.

Sting was vocal in his disapproval, but I didn't sense anything from him. I never picked up any positive feelings, so I took that as a good sign.

The town, by his account, was well aware of my being under house arrest, so we took a roundabout route to the lake, with me carrying Sting when it became too hard for him to keep moving while taking in air at the same time.

"Have you gone this long without water before?" I asked at a moment when he seemed more able to breath.

"Sometimes. When I first started… to need water, and I've been struggling a lot since… we moved here. It's much better if I get to swim in the ocean and… the amount of time I can be away when I make do with a lake isn't… nearly as long. I was kind of glad to fall through that ice… that day when I let Grisia out."

He winded himself telling me that. I didn't question him again until we'd reached the lake. There, he climbed off my back and walked to the water's edge, undressing as quickly as he could and wading in until his waste was beneath the surface before changing forms. After he'd swam away at the beach, I felt the need to chase him down and make sure he didn't flee from me again, but that would be silly. Sting hadn't gotten angry with me for hiding that I was a half-demon or even for keeping Zeref close, and I had returned the favor by not showing how I was angry that he'd kept his own half-human nature secret from me. He had no reason to hide from me.

It still killed me to wait the ten minutes it took for him to surface.

"Feeling better?"

He spat out an unsettling amount of water before saying, "you have no idea. I'm going to be a while, but—"

"Take your time. I'd hate to have you suffocate from something as simple as keeping dry too long."

He laughed nervously. "I wish the others hadn't told everyone about that when got back. I'm not exactly comfortable with _everyone_ knowing I have that serious a weakness."

"It's good to know. I could have killed you with that Lich mission, right?"

It would have been nice if he hadn't answered that by smiling pleasantly and nodding, and even that would have been alright if he hadn't added, "I also wouldn't have been dumped on top of Grisia's seal if you hadn't dragged me on that one."

"I had no way of knowing anything was sealed in those mountains—or that you had an artifact to unseal anything. Where did you find that, anyway?"

Sting pointed down into the lake.

A sudden shiver ran down my spine, and Sting frowned. "I know," he said. "It wasn't even the weirdest thing down there."

He disappeared under the water again, so I couldn't tell him I hadn't been reacting to the thought of Grisia's amulet having been in the lake so much as Zeref's power. It felt distant. Something must have gotten caught in his death radius for me to feel the chaotic energy for so far away.

I licked my lips. Every last drop of chaos I'd tasted the past few weeks had either been people's petty concern or their anxiety around me. Drinking in some of the destruction that radiated off of Zeref would be a nice refresher after that. I just needed to be a bit more subtle about it. And practice some restraint. Once we'd managed to seal the other lord demons, Zeref would be on his way. I didn't want to be so used to his level of chaos that I had to commit murder myself to keep satisfied. I _refused_ to sink to that level.

"Sting," I called out when my friend resurfaced. He waved to me. "When this whole mess is over, you have to keep me out of trouble."

"Okay. But you have to come here with me and guard my clothes," he yelled back, not taking even a moment to consider why I may have said what I did. God bless him. "The first time I came down here I had to hide so the girls in the dorm wouldn't know I could see them skinny dipping, and they were all playing by where I hid my clothes so I had to wait a while."

He'd been more embarrassed then lustful when that had happened, and embarrassment wasn't as high on the chaos scale, so I only saw a few short snippets of the incident as he recalled it.

"Are you… blushing? Stop reading my mind!"

"I'm not trying too! Stop thinking things I'll pick up!"

Sting laughed and vanished under the water.

Sulking, I sat down in the dirt and waited for him to surface. I should have asked how long he needed to stay in the water. Or maybe he'd already recovered and was enjoying himself now. He seemed to be breathing easier.

He didn't stay under more than a few minutes, popping back up and announcing, "I'm all calm now. No more bad thoughts to turn you into a pervert."

"I will hurt you, Eucliffe."

That only made him laugh harder. He swam towards me, pulling himself part of the way out of the water and grinning like a maniac. "Hey, are you alright to be out this long?"

"Zeref should be back soon. If there's any trouble, he'll warn me."

"You have some sort of psychic connection with him?"

"I have some sort of psychic ability to feel evil."

Sting looked around.

"He's not _that_ close."

"Well, how far away can you pick things up from?"

No anxiety. He was asking out of innocent curiosity. I smiled and obliged him. "Simple thoughts, lust or worry, I couldn't get from more than twenty or thirty feet away. Something major like intent to kill or genuine death I might sense from a few blocks down—assuming the victim had enough time to register they were dying." Sting nodded and started looking around again. "He's still not that close, Sting. If you gather enough of anything chaotic, even something that would be small on it's own, I can pick it up from miles away. The day Genesis first attacked the guild I picked them up a ways off. Zeref is harder in some ways, because most of his chaotic thoughts aren't destructive to anyone but himself, but he's killed so many times and his magic has such potential that I can feel him from a great distance if I'm trying to."

Sting nodded again and shifted so that he was resting on his elbows, head, shoulders, and dorsal fin poking out of the water. "I'd be looking for him too if I still had Grisia after me, and if he was willing to do something about that."

Zeref's protection had hardly been a consideration in wanting him back. I kept my smile up and resisted the urge to make Sting promise to keep me out of trouble again.

"What about you? Siren use water magic, right? I've never seen you use any before."

Sting frowned at that. "It would be nice if I did. Drying would be easy if I could flick my wrists and make water fly off of me, and dragon slayer magic is hard to work when you have a fish tail and your roar sends you flying backwards."

The image of Sting being shot backwards in the water from the force of his own attack made my smile easier to keep up, and even forced a snicker past my lips.

"I can do one siren trick, though. Here." He pushed himself back into deeper water and opened his mouth, soft words coming out in a gentle melody and I had just a moment to realize he was singing.

And then I was out neck deep in the water with him.

"I… what?"

Sting grabbed my arm and dragged me under, laughing and letting me go when I started flailing only a few feet below the surface. I scrambled back up and gasped for air, then hurried back towards solid ground. Sting had the good sense not to try and grab me again, as well as to wait until I was too far from the deeper parts of the lake to hit him before he came back up.

"What was _that_?" I demanded.

"I can enchant people. Mostly it's a nuisance, having them follow me around like robots whenever I so much as hum, but if I don't have to hide that I'm part siren I'm going to have fun using it to mess with everyone."

"I could have drowned!"

His face fell. "Not from being underwater five seconds. And I'd have helped if you couldn't get back on your own."

Which I would have realized if I hadn't yelled at him immediately. And he still had yet to get mad at me over anything related to being Lucia's son. Being Lucia's son, incidentally, let me pick up Sting's sudden anxiety, rocketing to levels I didn't know he could reach, and a few memories of how I hadn't been opposed to hunting siren. "It… Fine. Nothing went wrong, anyway. Just don't do that again. I didn't want to get wet."

He smiled for me, but it was as fake as mine had been a minute ago. Pointing out that I had an internal sensor for knowing when someone faked a positive feeling was pointless. I sighed and shifted the topic. "You never told me how long you can go without water."

"A few weeks if we're at the ocean. Only a couple days if I'm using a lake."

"And a pool?"

"It would probably set me back," he guessed.

"Even if you don't grow a tail?"

"Probably. Besides, not changing forms in the water is _hard_. Swimming this way feels good. Too good. Standing in water with _legs_ is torture when I could be doing this."

"Why do you even own swim trunks then?" I asked.

"So you wouldn't think I was going to swim without anything on."

Picking up the clothes he had set aside before getting into the water, I tossed them out to him. "There. Now you don't have to swim naked."

"I was hoping to keep my clothes dry," he grumbled as he gathered the articles up.

"So was I." I folded my arms and thought about what I could possibly say to make Sting smile again. "So we'll have to stick to local work, or take jobs in areas with some body of water you can use." Which, as soon as I'd said it, sounded strange. That had never been a consideration before. Sting had willingly taken any work regardless of where. "How were you managing before we came to Magnolia?"

"The beach was close enough that I could run down there and swim whenever you found work," he explained. "I'd keep a bag packed at all times so I could use any time you thought I needed to prepare to secretly make a swimming trip, then grab my luggage and go."

"Maybe we can try and work out something like that if we want to take a job that would give you trouble, then. For now, we should stick to jobs that keep you near a lake."

"Or the ocean. We should find a job that has us solving a murder by the ocean! You can use your psychic demon powers to see the crime and then we can go to the beach!"

Even I didn't think murder and beach vacations mixed, well, but at least he was smiling again. Mission accomplished.

Sting threw his wet clothes back at me. They hit me in the face.

"Sting!"

"Your already wet. Come in here with me."

"I'm fine right where I am."

 _He'd better not move_.

I looked around and, seeing no source for that thought, got up to wade into the water. It was cold. Summer had ended, after all. I did not envy Sting if he had to swim in the middle of the winter. Maybe someone from the guild was just trying to scare me into the water. I didn't pick up things thought without honest intent behind them, so nothing grim that a person would imagine out of simple curiosity that I might pick up the idea, but if the actual intent was still malicious…

_How fast could he wade through water anyway?_

I started moving again. Zeref was too far away to warn me and I was outside the guild's barrier. I'd rather risk falling for a guild prank than being captured by the enemy. I faltered just a moment when I sensed hesitation, then did my best to run for Sting when I caught the full thought behind it.

 _He_ did _send Zeref to save me… but it's not like I have a choice. If that's what happens when I disappoint Ecilan, then I need to get back in his favor._

"Rogue? Is something wrong?"

"Pull me under! Siegrain is—"

Fuck. I thought that kind of timing only happened in movies, but the spell flew out and grabbed me mid-sentence.

"Rogue!" Sting cried, racing through the water to try and pull me back. I was out of reach, but his hand caught Siegrain's foot. We lurched as the spell tried to keep his balance with the added weight, then crashed into the mud by the lake's edge.

I tried to roll over and tear myself out of his grasp, but a jolt of electricity ran through me and left me numb. I could only watch helplessly as Sting, trying to change back into his human form so he could put up a fight, was blasted clear to the other side of the lake.

"Ecilan?" Siegrain called out. "Ecilan, where are you? I have him."

Silence. I couldn't move. Siegrain didn't. Neither of us spoke. All that could be heard was the wind and the spell's panting… Panting? Siegrain didn't breath. Then who was...

An image of Siegrain being shredded to pieces by a demon flashed through my mind, clearing things up even as it clouded my vision. In the sudden chaos I'd stopped paying attention to Zeref. He must have warped to catch up to Siegrain. I liked what he had in mind. It sent a chill of anticipation down my spine to think of it.

Then he stopped, shifting from fury to panic at the drop of a dime before warping away.

Pain seared through me without warning. I screamed, mind going completely numb. When I recovered enough of myself to notice my surrounding I could hear shouting, and after a moment recognized that I couldn't figure out _who_ was shouting because it was everyone at once. Sting and Siegrain and Zeref and… was that Erza? It sounded like Zeref had gone for help. The deep, imposing voice that would have overpowered them all had there not been so many others was Ecilan's, I could recognize that much.

And the shard of ice through my back, which looked as thick as my leg when I managed to lift my head and look at it, must have been Ecilan's too.

Finding the energy to move my arms, I tried to push myself up. With a squelch the ice moved an inch deeper into my back, then began to lift out of the mud it was meant to pin me do. I did my best not to make any pained noises as the mud resisted letting go and pulled the shard in deeper. As long as it was slowly freeing itself from the mud… as long as I could escape…

A foot planted itself on my shoulder and pinned me back down. Siegrain, most likely. Ecilan didn't have feet.

Someone shrieked. I didn't think it was me, but with a _giant chunk of ice_ in my side it was a little hard to keep oriented. If it wasn't me, I was beyond caring what made them scream.

 **Lucia!** Ecilan bellowed, **Show yourself! If your errand boy has come to play body guard then you must be watching. Come now, or I will** **kill** **your brat.**

Something poked against the skin on the back of my neck. Another ice shard? Whatever it was, I could feel it creeping its way towards my bone. I shut my eyes and wondered if I'd maybe only be paralyzed at the end of this.

Regardless of whatever the rest of the world wanted, I was praying that for once my dad would get off his ass and pay a visit.

-o-

"You overstep your bounds."

My eyes snapped open. Despite my lack of comprehension for what all had happened since Ecilan attacked me, I recognized that voice. That was _my_ voice, and I sure hadn't spoken.

I tried to look up, but the gesture dug the ice above my neck in deeper. I remained motionless—or as motionless as one can be while god dammed explosions are going off overhead. With an abrupt jerk, the ice in my neck flew out. I might have been more relieved if the chunk buried in my side hadn't also been knocked over by the blast, tearing further down my torso. I wasn't sure, but it felt like I was crying.

"I'm impressed, Ecilan. I didn't think any of you vermin really had it in you to threaten me."

I still wasn't talking, right?

With no ice hovering just above me neck, I forced myself to look back at whoever the speaker was.

Gray?

Gray, hand outstretched in Ecilan's blue mist. Ecilan himself looked more compact than usual, wrapped around Gray's arm. The mist condensed, burst out, then wrapped back in, as if trying to escape. Gray had _grabbed_ an incorporeal demon? Not just that. With a small "tch" Gray tossed Ecilan aside, the mist skirting over the lake, right through Sting, who had at some point found the time to change back into human form and but on boxers.

Makarov yanked Sting back towards what looked like the whole of Fairy Tail. We weren't that close to the guild. How long had I been out of it?

"It seems I have a welcoming committee," Gray, no, _Lucia_ observed. "I hope you don't mind. I had a different sort of company in mind."

Lifting his hand and snapping his finger, a loud crack ran through the air. I flinched, ears ringing from the sound. No one else seemed to notice, not until Jellal clutched his stomach and doubled over.

"Ceo, how nice of you to join us," Lucia purred. That was not a noise I needed to hear someone with the same voice as me make. Why did Lucia even keep his own voice? Grisia and Ceo had used their host's voices, although they added that deep effect to them.

 **I apologize for my tardiness,** Ceo rumbled. **Your old friends have been quite determined to stop us, as of late.**

"And I haven't had much interest in a reunion with them, although you people insist. I must thank you though. You may be the only one who hasn't crossed me. As for _you_ ," I looked to Ecilan, who was slinking back across the lake, then to Lucia, then followed his gaze to the actual target.

Grisia.

"If you couldn't stop Ecilan, it seems you could have at least kept my host in good shape."

**Had Elmairy taken the body as intended, the injuries would have been inconsequential. My apologies.**

**It should still be my body,** another voice added. Elmairy was here too?

"Hmph. And here I'd been thinking it was Ecilan who needed to be put in his place. If you would talk back to me so soon, I suppose there's no use in keeping you around."

 **There's no use in keeping him,** a fourth voice murmured. Four? But there was already Grisia, Ceo, Elmairy… that hadn't been Ecilan's voice. Had Lucia summoned _all_ of the lord demons?

Everything was too spread out for me to try and watch, still pinned to the ground by a thick ice shard. Why I'd expected a father who hadn't bothered to so much as drop in and say hi when he apparently _could have shown up at any time_ to put forth the effort to actually save me was a mystery. I resolved to lay where I was and bleed out, spending my last moments enjoying the blissful chaos of a fallen angel slaughtering a lord demon who dared talk back to him.

What a shame that I'd miss seeing the rest of the world crumbled under Lucia too.


	47. Sting wakes a sleeping beast

Not that watching Lucia pop a lord demon, for lack of a better word, wasn't fun. On the contrary, being chased by Grisia made it _incredibly_ satisfying to see one of those misty freaks break apart and fizzle out of existence. A little more pressing than seeing if Lucia could take care of the other eleven lord demons he'd summoned, however, was seeing if it was still possible to save Rogue.

The ice that Ecilan had pierced him with had been capping off any blood that might have flown out, but ice on massive open wounds near your core is not a good idea. Even without that, Lucia's attack had knocked the ice shard over. Rogue looked so muddled throughout that I wondered if he even noticed the blood pooling beneath him.

Hopefully that cloudy look in his eyes was from his chaos sensors going into overdrive. Hopefully he wasn't staring in that unfocused way at the dirt because he was in too much pain. Hopefully Lucia cared enough about his son to let me pull Rogue out of the crossfires.

At this point I would have normally taken off running already, but something told me that wouldn't work too well against a psycho who could kill lord demons on a whim. Instead, I tried to creep around the chaos that erupted when Elmairy was killed. I'd almost made it across the gap when a pale grey mist snatched me off the ground and hurled me into the middle of the conflict.

 **Speak, half-freak**.

If they stuck around, I was going to _love_ that name. Which half of me was the freakish part?

The mist twisted around me, feeling like a million tiny razors against my flesh. **You dare approach Lucia?**

What did I have to lose? "Rogue," I told… which demon was it? It hardly mattered. "Rogue is hurt. Let me help him."

"You will stay away from my son," Lucia told me. "Roland, kill him."

 **Seems like a waste,** the grey mist mused. **Are you sure? If he's interested in your child's wellbeing—**

"Kill him," Lucia repeated.

When Roland didn't instantly obliterate me, Siegrain spoke up. "If he won't, I would be happy to—"

Lucia swatted him away, dissolving any need I may have felt to curse Jellal for not letting his brat die earlier. Even with Roland still clutching me and Rogue still bleeding out I was practically cheering as Siegrain looked up to Ecilan only to be tossed aside again, who was muttering some cliched line about outliving one's usefulness, without even getting a chance to speak.

Roland's grip loosened. I could hardly blame him. It was hard to stay focused on a minor captive when the thing everyone had just dismissed suddenly released so much magic the ground beneath you cracked.

"We had a deal!" Siegrain yelled. "You were going to make me human!"

 **And how exactly did you expect adding magic to you would make you any less magical?** Ecilan asked. **If granting your wish were possible, the angels would have done it to shut you up.**

If I were Siegrain I'd have screamed and gone into a rage, attacking Ecilan with everything I had, which, for Siegrain, was enough to take Magnolia off the map. If he acted on the spur of the moment he might have even taken out Lucia. And Rogue.

Thank God Siegrain wasn't me. Looking as if he'd been smacked in the face, Siegrain took a step back, then another, magic dissipating. For a second he could only stare, then he cried, "But your amulet—"

Lucia flicked a finger at Siegrain, blowing the bastard over. Where he'd been standing, Ecilan's amulet now hovered. _The key to restoring Natsu…_

Rogue came first! If I could just find _some_ way to get to him, then we could get the hell out of here.

"Fine." While Siegrain kept talking and distracting the lord demons, I crept towards Lucia again. "Fine. So I'm not useful to you anymore?"

I tore my gaze off of him. Maybe ignoring the guy who was _radiating Etherion_ and launching into a 'how dare you cast me aside' rant wasn't the best way to stay in the gene pool, but if I let myself get distracted then Rogue would be robbed of the chance to truly earn his own removal from the pool. He still looked conscious… I thought. If I could just get him away from Lucia… Porlyusica was still at the guildhall. She could save him. Of Wendy could break away from the fighting and follow me. Or the angels could make themselves fucking useful in the lord demons' presence for once and work some heavenly cure-all on him.

And Siegrain made a wonderful distraction. No one grabbed me this time as I slunk up to Rogue. I was inspecting the ice spike pinning him down, trying to figure out how to remove it without hurting him further, when someone grabbed my hair and lifted my off the ground.

"What are you doing?" Lucia asked me.

"Rogue, he—"

If I'd thought it hurt to be lifted by my hair, it was only because I had yet to discover how it felt to be _thrown_ by my hair. I later found a few bald patches from where Lucia throwing my had torn the hair clean off, but while I was still being tossed across the field it wasn't my greatest concern. I landed a few feet from the lake's edge, skidding until my clothes were close enough to soak up water. Not that they hadn't already been damp.

I didn't have much time to dwell on that, rolling to my feet as a blast of energy from Lucia's hand raced towards me. It grazed my arm, tearing the skin open, and burst as it hit the ground, splattering mud everywhere.

Lucia cleared the distance between us in the time it took to rub away the mud that threatened to drip into my eyes. His burnt fist slammed into my stomach and forced me onto my side. Watery mud sloshed down my neck.

Water! I couldn't fight in water, but Gray couldn't breathe down there at all! And Ceo was the closest there was to a lord demon who had any relation to water! If I could get Lucia to pursue me far enough that I could drag him under, I could drown him out of Lucia.

With a destination to my dodging, I did a worse job of avoiding damage. I took a blast to the shoulder as I drew him towards the lake. Was it serious enough that I wouldn't be able to grab him? I doubted I'd have had much chance uninjured.

The only thing I thought I had going for me was the element of surprise, so I went above and beyond trying to keep my plan secret. Stupid, in hindsight. This was Rogue's dad, and Rogue had some crazy psychic power to tell him when people were trying to harm him. There was no point in trying to hide it. The only reason Lucia had followed me is because I wasn't a threat. I held off changing forms so long that I had to shift clothed, tearing my outfit and hurting like hell, for no good reason.

And it was only because the lord demon Lucia had enough magic to let himself breath underwater that he didn't resist when I pulled him under.

I really didn't know how to fight in the water, but Lucia had no problem. As soon as he was submerged he returned to blasting energy at me. I darted around, trying to dodge and find a weak point at the same time. The best I thought to try was singing for him, but Lucia seemed unaffected by my enchantment and I went back on the defensive after only a few lines. His attacks disturbed the usually calm water, making it churn and adding a layer of difficulty to my avoiding getting hit. For a moment, just a moment, I wished he were a full siren, or at least that he'd acted like one. If I'd only been better at living in the water…

But then if I hadn't had siren blood at all this whole mess wouldn't have happened. I'd have never come down to the bottom of this lake and gathered up clay full of evil artifacts or… or…

I couldn't fight in water, but I might know something that could.

Lucia followed me as I dove deeper, past the point that sunlight could reach down in the lake, past the point that you could still look up and see someone on the surface. At the risk of revealing myself, I let the glow of my magic light my hand as I scurried along the lake floor, hoping this time to spot it before I ran into it.

I didn't. Just like the day I'd found Grisia's amulet, I swam headfirst into something huge, leathery. The mystery monster at the bottom of the lake. It hadn't stirred, and my heart clenched. Was it already dead. Lucia wasn't far behind me, but I put an ear to the creature and listened for signs of life. I thought I heard something promising and rammed against its side, pushing, hitting it, whatever would make it move.

The creature didn't stir.

Lucia was getting close. I could see him from the blast of energy prepared to hit me. No more time to wake the thing. I put out the light of my own magic and tried darting to the other side of the creature, the barely missed blast of Lucia's attack propelling me forward a few feet when he fired faster than I'd expected.

Maybe the attack hit the creature instead, or maybe the churning water disturbed it. Whatever the case, water and clay shifted as it lifted its head, unfurled, stood up on the lake shore. Then it roared.

Roared. I let my magic light the area around me again and gasped as I realized what exactly was sleeping beneath the lake. The water dragon looked at me, annoyed by the light, and I stopped the spell. Seconds later Lucia's magic lit the spot where he was readying another attack, and the dragon launched at him. The currents left from it springing of the lake floor sent me somersaulting backwards across the lake.

When I managed to right myself I could hear the dragon above me. A dragon! I'd gone and woken up a dragon in the middle of the demon apocalypse.

Curiosity overpowered fear. Whether that was curiosity of seeing another dragon in action or curiosity of how Lucia was fairing after a dragon had sprung at him didn't matter, since they were both locked in battle above the lake. I swam up, hiding just beneath the water, and watched.

Lucia attacked with a bolt of lightning. The dragon managed to raise itself before he could fire, and the attack went under it and into the woods behind the lake. Lucia readied another bolt, but the dragon bit into him and tore away, taking a piece of his leg… of _Gray's_ leg… with it.

The ruler of the lord demons' face showed no signs of pain, but when I watched him dart back across the surface of the water, walking on it like he was still some blessed being, I noticed the injured leg moved slower. My eyes moved up to his arms, which had been burned before he possessed Gray, and I realized those burns were the only thing keeping Lucia's attacks from being instantaneous.

For all the hell he'd put me through, I couldn't help but silently thank Grisia for inadvertently saving my life with that one.

Slower or not, Lucia was still fast. Two more attacks missed, but the third lightning bolt his the dragon's leg. It roared in pain and fell into the water, and I had to swim against the waves it created with its sudden entrance.

Lucia stood on the water, watching as the dragon sank back into the dark. Then his focus turned to me, and another lightning bolt started to form in his hand.

No way could I dodge that in water.

Then the dragon's head snapped back up, grabbing Lucia's only uninjured limb and pulling him back under. Another wave came without warning, this one sending me twirling towards the rocky outcrop I had once hidden from a group of naked girls behind.

Kicking my tail as hard as I could, I caught myself before I slammed into the rocks.

Lucia had no tail, and no fast means of casting spells. He slammed into the stone beneath me, and lord demon or not, the body he'd taken was human. When it hit the outcrop, Gray's body went limp.

In my moment of panic, I tried lifting my head up for a breath of air, still in siren form, before diving under to make sure Gray wasn't dead. The attempt made me gag, and before I knew it the dragon was swimming towards us both. If its prey wasn't dead it, here was the perfect chance to go in for the kill.

And while Lucia would go back to his own realm, Gray _would_ be killed.

But I was a dragon slayer, wasn't I? Even if that didn't work too well under water.

Bracing myself against the rocks, I shifted back into human form as much as I could underwater, inhaling the wrong substance yet again as I sucked in and prepared my own roar. It felt strange to have water hurting my lungs, but I shut my eyes and ignored it.

Without the proper form, my attempt at declaring my attack came out garbled and bubbly, but the breath attack that followed was unaffected by the terrain. My White Dragon's Roar hit the water dragon, pushing it back as it pressed me hard against the stone as well. It wouldn't be the most effective of attacks, but it would have to cut it.

While the dragon shook itself off and worked out what happened, I grabbed Gray's less burnt arm and hurried for dry land.

Above the water, everything looked much different than it had a minutes before. Siegrain's tantrum, ongoing, had done a number on the landscape, and two lord demons were nowhere to be seen. Wendy was standing beside Rogue, healing him. Lucy stood at his other side, holding him up as he mouthed something out. In front of him, a lord demon was fading.

I dragged Gray onto land and looked back at the lake. Ripples could be seen where the dragon got close to the surface before sinking back down. I swallowed and hoped it didn't come up. Near as I could tell, Laxus was the only dragon slayer we had left in fighting shape.

Although a lightning slayer against a water dragon…

Lucy's screams drew me from my thoughts. I looked over to see her rushing towards me, crying for Wendy and Natsu and _anyone_ to come help because Gray was _dying_.

Swearing, I laid him out on the ground, trying to keep his legs out of the mud as much as possible. Wendy came over, then Lucy, then Laxus and Freed and the guild master and everyone but Rogue, who had glanced at me and gone back to mouthing out words to make the lord demon fade.

I stepped back and let Wendy heal Gray's wounds while Lucy supervised, alternating between trying to wait out Lucia's being forced from the dying body and not wanting to risk Gray's life. At the point that it looked like she'd gotten the two balanced, I stepped back and fully surveyed the scene.

The lord demon that had been in front of Rogue was gone, a stone slab in its place, and he was approaching another. Siegrain himself looked to be fading away, and as his tantrum lost steam Zeref was approaching him. It was about time someone did the bastard in. Gray looked like he'd live. Wendy had been stumped by bite taken from the side of his leg, but it looked like ghost!Natsu and his angelic flame sword were cauterizing the wound. The whole mess was wrapping up quite nicely.

Then the water dragon burst out and roared, head whipping towards me.


	48. Sting surveys the damage

"Who dared wake me." The way the dragon eyed each of us, it didn't feel like a question. If the dragon was wondering anything, it was probably whether or not it _cared_ enough about sparing the rest of us to learn who it was mad at.

Its gaze swept over each of us, pausing on Gray, then rising up to a figure standing above him.

The other lord demons had looked like mist. Mist that sometimes took a humanlike shape. Lucia without someone else's body looked similar to how Siegrain, now passed out, did just then. Faded, translucent, but human. Almost. His image flickered in and out, but was steady enough to make out his features, and see that Rogue got his looks from his mom.

Disheveled golden hair fell over equally golden eyes, which glared up at the dragon. Lucia was shorted than I'd expected. Not even six feet. He looked almost average, except for the chilling glare, making the dragon second guess attacking, and the decaying wings that jutted from his back.

The dragon stepped forward, opened is jaw, and snapped its neck forward, only to pull back at the last second. It feinted twice more, then drew in its breath.

Elfman grabbed Gray and everyone standing near Lucia scattered.

A jetstream of water shot from the dragon's mouth. Luci raised a hand to divert it, and most of the water split around him, but the lord demons weren't as strong without a host body, and Lucia was less vaporous than the other demons. Not all the water was blocked, and what hit him knocked him back.

He snarled and looked back to Gray, then to Jellal, who Lucy ran out and pulled over next to Gray. Were the angels standing guard there? Something about that site made it unappealing to Lucia, because he dismissed the idea of taking a body again and focused his glare back on the dragon.

The dragon might win, I realized with a grin.

The dragon was also likely to kill us when Lucia was gone, I also realized, and stopped grinning.

But Lucia had reached the same conclusion. He lifted a hand and the air split behind him. Just split it, like he ripped space itself open and there was nothing there. No color. Not white. Note black. Not grey. Not even translucent, like sky should have been. Just _nothing_.

I stared, too stunned by the sight to do much else, but the dragon was not about to be stopped by strange, hellish anomalies. Or maybe it was angelic. Whichever, the dragon hesitated only a second before pouncing on Lucia, catching him between its claws and pushing him into the empty space. The rip expanded as the dragon fell through it as well, and stayed stretched even after the tip of the dragon's tail vanished.

The murmur of Rogue's voice caught my attention. Another stone slab was forming in front of where he kneeled, another lord demon missing. Two sealed. One killed by Lucia. Two killed by Siegrain? I counted the remaining mist beasts, and saw six.

Where was Ceo?

Rogue looked over at me and smiled. He looked paler than normal, and shaky, which might have explained the kneeling. He looked to Lucy, who shook her head, then sat down against the new slab.

He wasn't moving, and I'd come out of the ordeal largely undamaged, which may have been jinxing it, since the rip in space was still there. I made my way over to Rogue and sat beside him.

"Not going to stop the rest of the lord demons?"

"The angels are busy with something else. Probably that." He pointed to the nothingness. "Lucy will explain later." He didn't add an 'I hope' to that, but I suspected it was there.

The explanation did come. Several minutes later the rip began to mend, and Lucy walked over and sat on the other side of Rogue. "Lucia tore a hole between planes. They're shutting it before he has a chance to let the dragon out. Trisiel hopes it will keep him busy long enough that he'll lose interest in us. As long as Rogue doesn't run towards danger again, we should be safe." When she paused I thought she might say something else about Trisiel. It wasn't like we all had an instant reference for angels. But she went on without thinking of it a moment. "They have a barrier put up around this place. The lord demons can't get out, but to hold all of them they needed to make it strong enough to trap us too. Can you manage until they're all sealed?"

"It's just reciting nonsense words," Rogue said dismissively, but there was a look of horror on his face as he tried to hide behind his bangs.

"It's using magic you're new to," I corrected.

"I can manage. If we stop them all here—"

"Ceo's gone," I cut in. "Did Siegrain get him?"

Lucy shook her head. "He's half dead himself, although he put himself in that state, and took two demons out. Ceo must have snuck away while they were raising the barrier."

"I can manage," Rogue insisted. "I just need to help seal them. I'm not even providing half the energy for that—and Wendy helped a lot. Grisia's still being held by the angels' spell for now, but…" I didn't make him finish that thought. The way he started at me, it was obvious what he meant. "Are they ready to get back to work. We need to find Ceo soon. One lord demon one the loose started all of this. We can't let any of them remain free."

Lucy nodded and drew the angels over, which, to me, looked like gesturing wildly at thin air and chatting up a storm with imaginary friends. Rogue wanted to seal Grisia first, now that they had the luxary to choose who they went after, and cast me so many nervous looks that I gave up on lingering to see if he needed help and left him to lean on Lucy. Even if it stung a bit not to be the one Rogue worked with, it was only temporary, and in his exhaustion he'd forgotten something.

Grisia wasn't behind half of it.

What had he done in the end? Let Elmairy out? Given me a few rough days? Maybe helped Lucia get a host, but the one who brought Lucia was Ecilan. Him and Siegrain, and Siegrain was the one who let Ecilan out in the first place. Grisia may have been a problem for me, but Ecilan and his lackey were the ones who nearly killed Rogue.

Ecilan seemed to be one of the lord demons Siegrain and taken out, so that left half the trouble team for me to make sure _wouldn't_ be trouble anymore. Zeref hadn't been able to harm Siegrain before, something I should have thought up when I saw him approaching the bastard, but if I could force him to drain himself—and I would find a way to do that—then I could take care of it without needing an anti-mage or Jellal.

But when I came to stand over my target, Zeref looked up and said, "I'm taking him."

"You can't kill him, we've established that."

"I don't _want_ to kill him." He looked like he had more to protest, but he stopped himself, so I refrained from pointing out that he'd gave killing the spell his all earlier that month. "If Siegrain wants to be treated like a human, then why not oblige him? It's not a hard request to grant, especially if it will make him act more humane."

I raised an eyebrow. This was not the speech of an ancient evil wizard.

Zeref met my gaze for all of four seconds, then looked at the ground and muttered, "And it would be nice to have a companion who doesn't die or act like a druggy when I get too close."

I couldn't exactly stop the Black Mage Zeref from doing anything, so I stepped back and worked out a way to see this as punishment. If Siegrain didn't like Zeref's company, then maybe it would be fitting to be stuck with him. Whatever Zeref thought about playing nice with him, the rest of the world would be in no hurry to follow suit.


	49. Sting gets on with his life

It took the guild less than two days to go back to normal.

Almost normal. Natsu was still unconscious. Jellal was still on lockdown in the guild. Gray was on bed rest while his wounds healed. Someone thought it wasn't an issue to put him in the same room where they'd kept Natsu, but it had been. At least for the first day, before Rogue came back the second with Siegrain's peace offering: the amulet for Ecilan's seal. Ecilan was dead, but as the most personal of experts on magic Siegrain insisted he could still see the effects of the curse that had taken out Natsu on the amulet, and that we could reverse the magic. Makarov figured it had to do with the curse being Grisia's, who was still very much alive.

After that Gray hadn't complained about much, aside from to whine about the horrible pain of having a dragon bite into him, and about the green glowing markings still on his stomach. With no Elmairy left to seal, there was no way to remove them. I suggested he try and pass off his nice, _permanent_ markings as a drunk tattoo, but when the suggestion didn't ring a bell I left him to deal with his dragon bite alone. Outside the room I could hear that Makarov had made news of the amulet public, and there was been some fuss over who got to take the amulet back to its old spot.

No idea why we couldn't revive Natsu at the guild, but Lucy, parroting the angels, had insisted it needed to be if we were going to revive Natsu. The rule had quickly been set that as few people as possible should go, so as to spring fewer traps. Gray had first pick, but while his leg wasn't missing as much mass as before he wasn't in any shape to make the trip yet, and wanted Natsu back as soon as possible. Lucy was a given, since Rogue couldn't hear the angels, no matter how good he was getting at detecting them.

"Not that the skill will do me any good after tomorrow," Rogue pointed out.

"It'll let you know the next time they send someone to spy one you."

"I suppose."

"Do you need that much luggage for an overnight trip?" I asked.

Rogue looked up from stuffing his suitcase. "Overnight?"

"They found Ceo only a day away, didn't they?"

"They did. A day away at the beach. You like swimming in the ocean best, don't you? And you can skip all the mushy, happy moments when Natsu wakes up this way."

"You're packing for _me_?"

"I didn't grab a swimsuit, if that's alright."

I shook my head. "I'm not going. I have to be here when Natsu wakes up."

Rogue looked disappointed and walked out of the room.

Our apartment was finally unpacked. Without Erza dragging us back to the guild for safety we'd had the time to get everything put away. I still hadn't the slightest idea where most of our things were in this disconcertingly unfamiliar place, but Rogue seemed to have it all committed to memory, and came back moments later with a smaller bag, looking to be in a much better mood.

"You're not mad?"

"I wanted to see those happy moments too." He grinned at me before digging through the larger bag and tossing his things into the little one. "I thought you didn't make the pick for Natsu's revival team. You're going to wait at the guild for when they bring him back? They're already throwing a party. It sounds like your kind of thing."

"Nah. I need to get kindling."

Rogue shrugged. "Just don't get it from the bottom of the lake. The last time you two times you dragged something up it went _so_ well."

Rogue doesn't have a good teasing voice, but I was pretty sure he said that in jest and only smacked him playfully. "What good is wet wood? Good luck with Ceo. You sure you've memorized the sealing incantation?"

"I didn't need Lucy's help the last two times. I'll be fine." He smiled. "He's all that's left, and we'll have everything from the lord demon mess taken care of. And once Ceo's gone, it will be safe for Jellal to leave." He zipped up the overnight bag and paused, considering what I'd said. "Kindling?"

"That's the last thing I have to do." I grinned. "I promised Natsu a bonfire."


End file.
